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IN  PORTS  AFAR 

By 

EDWIN  A.  SCHELL 

THE    ABINGDON    PRESS 

^ztn  Sorh                           Cincinnati 

COPTBIGHT,  1914, 

Bt  Edwin  A.  Schell 


TO 

^.  anb  (Mrs.  5?-  ^^  ^vauux^ 

TRAVELERS  ACROSS  ALL  MERIDIANS  OF  LONGITUDE, 

GRACIOUS  IN  HOSPITALITY, 

GENEROUS  AS  PROSPEROUS, 

PERSONAL  FRIENDS 

.\ND  FRIENDS  OF  MY  WORK,  THE  COLLEGE, 

WITH  GRATEFUL  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I.  Foreword  and  Wanderlust,        >        .        -        -  9 

II.  Two  Weeks  with  the  Greek  Army,       -        -  29 

III.   The  Wats  of  Trade, 44 

IV.  The  Country  of  Jesus, 67 

V.  England  All  the  Way, 84 

VI.  The  Gre.^.t  Circle  of  India — I,      -        -        -  98 

VII.  The  Great  Circle  of  India— II,        -        -        -  120 

VIII.  Half  Way, 137 

IX.  The  Great  American  Adventure,      -        -        -  154 

X.  Education  in  the  Philippines,        -        -       -  I68 

XI.  Content  and  Per  Contr.\, 181 

XII.  The  Fourteenth  AidENOMENT  in  the  Phiuppines,  193 

XIII.  Funeral,  Feast,  and  Function,  -        -        -        -  211 

XIV.  The  Modern  Antony, 223 

XV.  America  and  Japan, 236 

XVI.  Trans-Pacific,  -------  252 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 


Chaptee  I 

FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

rriHE  "wanderlust,"  like  religion,  is  soul  blown 
*■•  in  the  race.  Some  subtle  taint  from  the  mi- 
gratory experiences  of  mankind  remains  as  an 
infection  of  yearning  and  restlessness  in  us  all.  It 
does  not  need  the  advertisements  of  travel,  pictures 
of  galleries,  tales  of  adventure,  or  maps  of  battle- 
fields to  lure  one  abroad.  It  is  innate,  like  honor, 
courage,  and  the  instinct  to  command.  The  moun- 
tains that  lift  themselves  into  the  sky,  the  stars  on 
which  we  gaze,  and  the  seas  over  which  we  rush  are 
the  same  age  after  age;  likewise  the  desire  to  see 
them  renews  itself  in  every  generation,  and  just 
as  each  man  by  some  noble  capacity  may  expand 
into  knowledge  of  God  and  love  and  duty,  so  each 
heart  opens  to  the  curiosity  and  inquiry  of  what  is 
beyond.  Disappointment  does  not  obliterate  it, 
nor  time  heal  it.  No  matter  how  long  repressed 
by  the  discipline  of  life,  it  is  yet  like  some  latent 
bud  ready  to  flower  at  opportunity.  The  Odyssey, 
iEneid,  Anabasis  fan  it  like  a  blow-pipe ;  some  pic- 

9 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

ture  of  Balboa  overlooking  the  Pacific,  some  head- 
line of  Stanley  breathless  from  the  vast  interior  of 
Africa,  or  Peary,  hooded  and  deep-chested  from 
the  frozen  pole,  summons  us  like  some  call  of  the 
wild,  and  renews  the  vows  of  our  youth, 

"To  sail  beyond  the  sunset,  and  the  baths 
Of  all  the  western  stars,  until  I  die." 

Doubtless  you  have  seen  America  from  the  Maine 
^voods  to  the  utmost  fringes  of  Alaska;  feasted 
3'our  eyes  on  the  gorgeous  colorings  of  the  Yellow- 
stone and  Grand  Canon;  followed  the  trails  and 
heard  the  voices  of  Yosemite,  and  pierced  every 
pass  in  the  Rockies,  from  Banff  to  the  Royal  ^ ._ 
Gorge ;  have  followed  the  beaten  path  over  Europe,  CQ  ^ 
and  rode  in  a  Pullman  through  Mexico;  but  still, 
like  Ulysses,  you  feel, 

"I  can  not  rest  from  travel." 

Then  some  day  comes  a  strange  official  envelope 
without  a  postage  stamp,  as  though  you  had  been 
appointed  postmaster.  It  invited  you  to  lecture 
for  a  whole  month  as  a  Government  official  to  the 
Teachers'  Assembly,  Baguio,  at  the  end  of  the 
Benguet  Road,  in  the  far-away  mountain  province 
of  Luzon,  and  incidentally  view   Corregidor  and 

10 


2i 


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'^ 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

Manila  Bay,  that  already  bulk  so  large  In  Ameri- 
can history ;  Chicago  University  professors  have 
preceded  you,  a  doctor  professor  from  Columbia 
will  be  your  colleague;  it  is  the  first  invitation  ex- 
tended to  a  denominational  college  president;  will 
you  go?  The  archbishop,  who  is  neighbor  at 
Ludingion-on-the-Lake,  knowing  Washington  and 
what  Uncle  Sam's  commission  means,  says,  "Of 
course."  His  j^ounger  colleague,  fresh  from  the 
day's  work  and  ready  for  the  day's  sport,  remarks, 
"Such  invitations  come  only  to  a  few  and  once  in 
a  lifetime,"  both  of  which  help  to  confirm  the  ad- 
venture as  an  opportunity.  Then,  once  we  had 
offered  ourselves  for  foreign  work,  only  to  be  re- 
jected and  the  appointment  given  to  another;  and, 
though  always  encouraging  missions  and  preaching 
about  them,  it  was  in  the  vague  fashion  those  are 
compelled  to  use  who  speak  without  personal  knowl- 
edge. The  circumnavigation  trip  would  give  op- 
portunity to  cross  India,  visit  some  one  of  its 
villages,  sojourn  in  the  leading  stations,  attend  a 
Conference,  touch  China,  talk  with  the  leading 
missionaries,  and  thus  get  a  student's  view  of  the 
missionary  idea,  rather  than  a  hotel  view  with 
which   most    travelers    are    satisfied.      This    would 

11 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

bring  us  to  the  actual  residences  of  no  less  than 
seven  Iowa  Wesley  an  alumni  who,  following  the 
lead  of  Dr.  Vernon  and  Miss  Lawson,  have  volun- 
teered for  sei'vice  on  the  picket  line  of  missions. 
One  of  our  daughters  is  given  to  the  same  work. 
We  could  inspect  also  the  great  colonies  of  France, 
Algiers,  Tunis,  and  Indo-China ;  would  see  Egypt, 
India  and  the  Straits  Settlements,  the  principal 
colonies  of  England,  and  thus  be  able  intelligently 
to  estimate  the  worth  and  spirit  of  our  own  ad- 
venture in  the  PhiHppines. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  on  a  mid- winter  day, 
lofty  with  anticipation  after  a  day  \^ith  the  Wel- 
come Hall  Settlement,  Buffalo,  in  charge  of  Dr. 
William  E.  McLennan,  we  make  the  rounds  of  the 
big  Fifth  Avenue  building,  say  good-bye  to  Homer 
Eaton  for  the  last  time  on  earth,  and,  with  a  for- 
mer student  to  take  a  farewell  snapshot,  we  sail 
out  past  Sandy  Hook  with  a  bundle  of  steamer 
letters  in  our  hands  and  a  blur  of  mist  and  love 
in  our  eyes. 

The  world  was  present  when  New  York  was 
founded,  and  it  remains  truly  cosmopolitan.  Its 
geographical  situation  determines  its  greatness. 
Every   European   event   affects   its   fortunes,   the 

12 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

growth  of  every  State  in  the  Union  contributes  to 
its  prosperity;  it  is  unchallengeably  the  greatest 
harbor  on  the  planet;  it  is  in  the  east,  and  there- 
fore rising;  it  is  by  the  sea,  and  from  it  we  may 
take  a  swift  sea-chariot  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
or  the  smoking  steam  demon  to  Mexico  City  or 
Puget  Sound.  That  big  five-masted  schooner  is 
bound  for  Rio;  the  one  racing  neck  and  neck  with 
it  is  off  for  New  Zealand.  Amierican  Liner,  Cu- 
narder,  Nord-Deutscher,  Hamburger  Nachrichten, 
Spaniard,  Frenchman,  all  sail  for  the  Mediterra- 
nean the  same  day,  almost  the  same  hour.  We 
wonder  why  more  cabins  are  not  taken  on  our 
ship ;  she  is  booked  for  Naples,  but  is  bound  for 
Patras,  and  will  reach  the  Italian  port  five  days 
late.  New  Yorkers  know  and  the  Naples  steerage 
inquirer  learns,  but  we  do  not.  Husbands  wait  for 
wives  and  children  five  days  at  Naples,  and  wives 
for  husbands;  there  is  inconvenience,  broken  jour- 
neys, and  general  dissatisfaction.  The  men  who 
control  the  line  let  you  ship,  wire  you  for  your 
passage  money,  and  then,  months  after,  coolly 
write : 

"All  steamship  companies'  sailing  schedules  are 
'subject  to  change  without  notice;'  furthermore,  we 

13 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

are  covered  by  clause  No.  2  of  the  passage  contract, 
which  reads  as  follows: 

"  'The  vessel  shall  have  liberty  to  deviate  from 
the  direct  or  customary  course — the  company  does 
not  assume  responsibility  for  missing  a  connection 
with  other  steamships.'  " 

Thus  their  Chicago  agent.     In  the  language  of 
Holy  Writ,  "Go  not  thou  in  the  way  with  them." 

So  we  do  not  see  Naples  again,  nor  inspect  our 
mission  there,  nor  join  dextram  ad  dextram  with 
the  Greenmans ;  w^e  buy  no  cameos,  nor  bring  back 
the  bronzes  which  we  know  are  waiting  for  us, 
and  just  where.  It  is  less  loss  because  when  the 
world  was  young  we  had  traveled  across  Campania, 
looked  out  across  the  bay,  located  the  ancient 
Baiae,  where  the  Romans,  to  the  indignation  of 
Horace,  built  their  palaces  out  into  the  sea;  had 
seen  Cumje,  and  Virgil's  tomb,  and  even  fancied  the 
exact  spot  where  the  Alexandrian  cornship  with 
Paul  on  board  had  dropped  its  anchor.  It  is  yet 
like  a  picture  veiled  in  a  golden  haze,  into  which 
all  colors  and  hopes  resolve  themselves.  It  is  an 
event  in  any  man's  lifetime  to  come  upon  the  foot- 
steps of  St.  Paul,  as  it  was  an  event  to  Latin,  Jew, 
and  pagan  to  have  him  come  to  Rome.     It  was 

14 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

the  accomplishment  of  a  purpose  long  held  in  his 
mind,  though  not  attained  as  he  had  expected.  In 
the  days  of  the  Csesars  a  crossroad  led  to  Capua, 
there  joining  the  Appian  Way.  Yearning  to  help 
Rome,  chained  to  a  Roman  legionary,  St.  Paul 
marches  along  the  Alban  slopes  matching  his  spirit 
calmly  against  the  Roman  legions  and  empire.  His 
own  countrymen  will  not  hear  him,  but  he  preaches 
to  the  soldiers  in  the  barracks ;  exclusiveness  dies 
hard,  but  it  was  dying  even  then ;  it  was  the  last 
chance  of  the  Jew ;  rabbis  who  w^ill  not  make  terms 
with  Christ  must  pass  into  silence  and  oblivion. 
The  Greeks  and  Romans  who  crowded  the  forum 
gave  him  no  hearing,  only  contemptuous  indiffer- 
ence; but  heathenism  was  wounded  to  the  heart  at 
his  coming,  and  no  forum  could  hold  the  myriads 
who  now  read  the  letters  of  the  captivity.  It  took 
the  Mamertine  to  give  us  the  Epistles  to  Timothy, 
but  they  are  worth  it.  Many  an  old  hero  of  the 
faith  still  turns  on  his  last  pillow  with  the  words 
of  the  imprisoned  Paul  on  his  lips,  "I  have  fought 
a  good  fight;  I  have  finished  m}'  course;  I  have 
kept  the  faith." 

There  is  a  special  charm  in  sailing  for  the  ]Medi- 
terranean.     The  North  Atlantic  route,   involving 

15 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

as  it  does  a  shorter  voyage,  according  to  the  mathe- 
matics of  the  great  circle,  and  bringing  us  direct 
to  our  blood  Norse  brothers,  the  English  and  the 
German,  is  much  more  used.  But  the  romance  of 
sea  history  belongs  to  a  journey  in  lower  latitudes. 
The  ship  follo\^'s  the  forty-first  parallel  until  it 
approaches  the  Portuguese  coast,  thence  south  for 
Gibraltar  and  Algiers.  The  great  mariners  of 
history  all  sailed  the  same  waters.  Phoenicians, 
Carthagenians,  Greeks,  Romans,  'Norsemen,  Ital- 
ians, Spaniards,  French,  English,  all  have  pointed 
their  ships  over  the  same  sea,  by  the  same  stars, 
and  sailed  or  drifted  into  the  Azores.  Here  passed 
Columbus  "Westward  Ho,"  and  Santa  Cruz,  fa- 
mous marquis,  greatest  of  the  Spanish  admirals, 
who  took  his  title  from  the  Bay  of  Santa  Cruz; 
here  sailed  Drake,  pirate  and  wrecker  of  Spanish 
galleons  and,  according  to  Lope  de  Vega's  "Drag- 
ontea,"  the  Dragon  of  the  Apocalypse.  Rodney, 
Decatur,  Nelson,  and  others  of  whose  names  his- 
tory is  full,  all  burning  with  the  fires  of  hope  and 
purpose,  have  seen  these  shores  rise  into  sight  and 
sink  below  the  horizon.  Their  eyes,  like  mine,  saw 
Draco  winding  among  the  stars  of  the  Bear,  best 
known  of  the  northern  constellations,  and  the  Dip- 

16 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

per  make  its  nightly  circuit  about  the  pole.  Their 
little  ships  serve  as  models  in  the  museums  now, 
and  their  faded  portraits  hang  on  the  walls  of 
the  galleries  men  travel  abroad  to  see,  but  their 
great  names  are  a  part  of  that  perpetual  heritage 
with  which  the  past  endows  the  present. 

The  weather  is  much  warmer  than  we  had  ex- 
pected for  a  winter  voyage,  and  we  walk  our  five 
miles  daily,  play  shuffle-board  and  deck  golf,  read 
and  get  acquainted  with  our  fellow  passengers  sit- 
ting about  in  steamer  chairs.  Chess  is  a  fine  game 
for  a  long  voyage.  Sea  travel  affords  the  leisure 
chess  requires.  A  German  and  an  East-shore 
Marylander  played  a  game  every  evening  after  din- 
ner in  the  reading-room.  Their  games  averaged 
two  hours  in  length.  Temperamentally  both  were 
fitted  for  the  game :  phlegmatic,  tenacious,  and  with 
a  certain  military  fire  and  dash  at  times.  We 
watched  them  by  the  hour,  and  once,  when  the 
German  was  all  but  checkmated,  he  used  the  same 
moves  we  had  seen  Bishop  FitzGerald  use  in  an 
almost  similar  impasse.  No  one  better  than  the 
good  bishop  kne^\  how  to  use  the  knight  for  pur- 
poses of  attack,  and  he  had  a  subtle  sense  of  values 
that  told  him  when  it  was  profit  and  when  loss  to 
«  17 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

exchange  a  bishop  for  the  knight.  Every  game  was 
a  campaign  to  him,  and  he  carried  it  all  in  his 
mind.  He  alone  of  all  the  men  it  has  been  my 
profit  to  know  could  perfectly  play  chess  without 
board  or  pieces.  He  could  begin  with  queen's 
pawn  to  queen's  third,  and  through  the  most  in- 
volved game  know  the  exact  location  of  every  pawn 
and  piece.  That  marked  one  of  his  aptitudes  for 
the  episcopal  office.  When  there  were  three  hun- 
dred appointments  to  make,  each  of  the  presiding 
elders  knew  their  part  of  them — or  let  us  hope  and 
suppose  they  did — but  he  knew  them  all  and  car- 
ried them  all  in  his  great,  frictionless  mind.  Just 
as  Bishop  Walden  had  a  genius  for  figures,  and 
would  have  made  a  great  chancellor  of  the  ex- 
chequer, so  Bishop  FitzGerald  had  a  talent  for  ad- 
ministration. Few  chess  experts  played  the  game 
better,  and  no  bishop  ever  made  uniformly  better 
appointments.  Some  of  the  Conferences  were  in 
almost  open  revolt  at  his  refusal  to  move  men  at 
the  end  of  the  first  year.  Young  men  from  the 
colleges  and  on  their  way  to  preferment  and  con- 
spicuous places,  he  thought,  could  afford  to  go 
back  for  a  second  year;  the  bishop  believed  that 
to  move  men  in  the  rank  and  file  at  the  end  of 

18 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

the  first  year  meant,  without  exception,  that  the 
man  was  inefficient.  In  his  theory  men  who  moved 
every  year  ought  to  study  to  increase  their  effi- 
ciency, learn  how  to  stay  acceptabl}^  or  leave  the 
itinerancy.  The  settled  pastorate  to  him  was  put- 
ting the  king  in  the  "castle." 

And  following  these  games  forward  on  the  look- 
out, and  in  the  silent  solitude  of  night  and  sea, 
unanswerable  questions  thrust  themselves  upon  us 
unasked.  Are  men  like  queen,  bishop,  knight, 
rook,  and  pawn,  lifted  here  and  there  and  placed 
by  some  skillful  player's  hand,  traded,  pocketed, 
or  lost  by  capture  for  the  general  good  in  some 
great  "game,"  or  do  we  by  native  force,  training, 
and  happy  use  of  adventitious  moments  become 
"pieces,"  and  no  longer  pawns ;  like  the  queen  mov- 
ing all  ways,  or  as  a  bishop  narrowed  to  the  white 
or  black  diagonal,  or  as  the  knight  with  his  two 
paces  forward  and  one  to  the  right,  while  others 
lacking  the  force,  teacher,  or  circumstance,  remain 
pawns.?  Either  conclusion  is  preferable  to  the 
theory  that  we  are  subject  to  chance.  Yet  the  first 
hypothesis  challenges  liberty,  and  the  second  me- 
diates against  justice.  The  one  leans  toward 
authority,  and  the  other  tends  toward  democracy. 

19 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Yet  in  the  singular  sciences  predicated  upon  them 
respectively,  theology  and  politics,  we  are  left  at 
last  to  choose  our  own  creed  and  elect  our  own 
governors.  Two  things  germane  to  each  hypothesis 
seem  plain ;  first,  that  it  is  comforting  to  believe 
that  we  are  put  upon  particular  squares  by  the 
guiding  authority  of  an  unseen  hand,  and  second, 
that  there  is  no  success  possible  to  men,  churches, 
or  nations  but  in  finding  their  real  superiors  and 
obeying  them. 

Parallel  to  this  is  Kant's  question  as  to  whether 
a  necessary  condition  of  existence  is  to  have  had 
being  in  space  and  time.  For  example,  is  Julius 
Caesar  more  to  us  because  he  actually  lived,  and  is 
Ben-Hur  less  because  he  is  the  creature  of  the  im- 
agination of  General  Wallace.'^  Csesar  surely  would 
be  less  to  us  were  he  not  embellished  by  the  liis- 
torical  fancy  of  Plutarch  and  the  imaginative  fac- 
ulty of  Shakespeare.  But  what  is  the  test  of 
Realitv.'^  Does  it,  in  the  case  of  Caesar,  lie  in  the 
proof  that  he  walked  the  Forum,  or  in  the  imag- 
ination of  his  contemporaries  and  of  after-times? 
Would  Ben-Hur  be  a  greater  "reality"  had  he 
actually  served  in  the  galleys,  walked  in  the  grove 
of  Daphne,  and  won  the  chariot  race.^     He  was 

SO 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

not  subject  to  conditions  of  space  and  time,  but 
he  has  been  actually  created,  unless  creation  is 
purely  physical,  and  not  psychical  nor  moral. 
Boys  are  nam.ed  after  him,  a  fraternal  insurance 
company  every  week  celebrates  his  courage  and 
virtues  in  a  ritual,  and  as  you  pass  through  Craw- 
fordsville  even  now  men  and  women  say,  "Here 
Ben-Hur  lived."  This  is  not  intellectual  quibbling ; 
it  is  the  Kantian  proof  of  Christianity.  Historical 
tiTith  is  a  question  of  space  and  time;  Reality  lies 
in  the  recognition  \\hich  the  mind  gives  as  con- 
forming to  and  representing  universal  experience. 
This  is  the  real  test  of  the  canonicity  of  a  book. 
The  merit  of  the  Galatians  is  not  that  Paul  wrote 
it,  but  what  Paul  wrote,  and  its  weight  and  import 
as  it  appeals  to  me  for  broadmindedness  and 
charity.  If  Galatians  is  more  to  me  than  other 
uncanonical  letters,  it  is  because  Paul  wrote  such  a 
message  that  its  answering  nobleness  appealed  to 
the  bishops  and  believers  who  composed  the  Council 
of  Carthage,  and  who  therefore  put  it  in  the  Canon. 
So  Christianity,  having  taken  possession  of  the 
spiritual  convictions  of  mankind  by  conformity 
with  universal  experience,  carries  with  it  its  own 
evidence,   and  every   new   generation  may   have — 

21 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

nay,  must  have — Its  own  conclusive  proof.  Such 
evidence  is  the  only  final  barrier  to  formality  and 
Indifference,  and  without  it  religion  becomes  a  mat- 
ter of  altar-cloths  and  ritual. 

We  carried  with  us  besides  our  guide-books  the 
"Will  to  Believe,"  by  the  late  William  James,  and 
the  eight  books  of  the  Odyssey — sixth  to  the  tlilr- 
teenth,  inclusive — recounting  the  experiences  of 
Ulysses  among  the  Phaeacians.  It  may  have  been 
the  Greeks  on  board  or  the  long-determined  pleas- 
ure of  the  re-reading,  but  the  story  of  the  Phae- 
acians took  on  a  new  meaning  as  we  coasted  along 
in  sight  of  ^tna,  Ithaca,  and  up  the  Ionian  Sea. 
The  big  university  by  the  lake,  and  the  academy 
recitation-room  came  back  as  we  read,  and  at  the 
same  timie  we  recalled  the  failure  to  memorize  the 
first  ten  lines  of  the  sixth  book  as  attested  by  the 
professor's  recitation  mark.  Glancing  again  at 
the  pages,  the  billowy  hexameters  all  but  recite 
themselves : 

fis  6  fjikv  ev6a  KaOevSe  TroAvrXas  Stos  ^08vcraev<s 

Some  have  thought  that  In  the  incident  of  the  Phae- 
acians we  have  the  earliest  description  of  the  Phoe- 

22 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

niclan  colonies.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  press 
such  a  meaning.  It  gives  opportunity  for  the  ex- 
tension of  princely  hospitality  to  the  hero  at  the 
time  of  his  sorest  need  and  a  resting-place  for  the 
recital   of  his  adventures. 

The  Odyssey,  one  of  the  morning  poems  of  lit- 
erature, is  rich  in  womanly  character.  Indeed,  it  is 
the  "eternal  feminine"  which  gives  it  the  height- 
ened approval  of  every  new  generation.  Even 
Shakespeare,  who  lacks  so  little  in  any  respect, 
must  yield  the  palm  for  womanly  character  to  the 
old  Greek  bards  who  sang  of  Penelope,  Arete,  and 
Nausicaa.  Miranda  is  often  compared  to  Nau- 
sicaa.  Each  dwelt  in  an  island  home ;  both  are  por- 
trayed in  that  flying  moment  of  girlhood ;  each  has 
purity,  grace,  and  freshness,  with  beauty,  reserve, 
and  versatility;  Shakespeare  has  dra^vn  Miranda 
as  Homer  has  drawn  Nausicaa,  without  saying 
much  of  her  personal  chaim,  which  is  left  for  us 
to  interpret,  but  the  simplicity,  naivete,  and  force- 
fulness  of  the  Greek  maiden  seems  to  me  incom- 
parably superior.  Ulysses  is  himself  set  apart  by 
the  word  "polutlas,"  used  five  times  in  the  Iliad 
and  thirty-five  times  in  the  Odyssey.  He  possessed 
the  beauty  of  human  form  which  the  Greeks  did 

23 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

not  retain  for  the  women  alone,  but  bestowed  upon 
all  their  heroes.  There,  by  the  far-resounding  sea, 
w^e  can  imagine  Robert  Browning  meeting  Eliza- 
beth Barrett,  and  the  address  which  Ulysses  makes 
to  Nausicaa  is  deserving  the  comment  that  Homer 
makes  of  it,  "Straightway  a  gracious  and  winning 
speech  he  spake."  Beauty  was  one  of  the  three 
great  gifts  of  the  gods  to  men,  and  both  the  man 
who  speaks  and  the  woman  addressed  have  it.  The 
words  need  to  be  winsome;  and  Homer,  whose 
speeches  are  everywhere  wonderful  specimens  of 
eloquence,  has  never  surpassed  the  admirably  con- 
trived appeal  which  the  shipwrecked  hero  makes  to 
the  maiden.  Beginning  with  the  assumption  that 
she  is  a  goddess,  he  likens  her  to  Artemis;  but 
if  she  is  mortal,  her  beauty  must  be  the  joy  of  all 
dear  to  her;  anything  comparable  to  it  he  never 
saw  save  once,  a  springing  palm  at  Delos.  Rever- 
ence for  her  beauty  is  so  mingled  with  his  admira- 
tion that  it  sustains  and  elevates  a  flattery  which 
would  be  too  open  and  unblushing  in  itself.  After 
referring  to  his  former  importance  in  the  world 
and  claiming  the  right  of  hospitality,  he  closes 
with  the  wish  that  the  gods  who  persecute  him  may 
shower  upon  her  the  choicest  blessings  they  have 

^4 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

in  store  for  maiden  virtue  and  maiden  hope, — 
a  husband,  home,  and  fondest  mutual  affection. 
Only  Naomi  wishing  her  daughters-in-law  rest  in 
the  "house  of  a  husband"  equals  it.  Nausicaa  is 
not  outdone  by  the  "wily"  traveler,  for  when  at 
last  he  departs  laden  with  gifts,  she  does  not  under- 
rate the  part  she  took  in  his  welcome,  and  says 
with  sweetness  and  dignity, 

"Stranger,   farewell!    and   in  thy  native  land, 
Remember  thou  hast  owed  thy  life  to  me." 

Her  mother.  Arete,  as  well  as  the  daughter  and 
Penelope,  are  called  "/?aaiAeta,"  which  never  occurs 
in  the  Iliad,  and  the  word  betokens  the  increased 
influence  of  women  due  to  the  absence  of  their 
husbands  at  Troy  and  the  cares  of  state  devolving 
upon  them.  She  is  even  more  remarkable  than  her 
charming  daughter.  Fifty  maids  stand  attentive 
at  her  slightest  call,  and  she  is  well  known  for 
activity  in  public  miatters.  She  is  prophetic  of  the 
modem  feminine  movement,  which  really  is  as  old 
as  the  race,  retarded  and  delayed  by  the  religions 
of  the  far  East,  Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  and  Mo- 
hammedanism, and  the  dreadful  crimes  against 
womanhood  and  childhood  which  they  have  counte- 
rs 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

nanced.  Arete  shares  with  Alcinous  the  govern- 
ment of  the  realm: 

"From  their  hearts 
Her  children  pay  her  reverence,  and  the  king, 
And  all  the  people,  for  they  look  on  her 
As  if  she  were  a  goddess.     When  she  goes 
Abroad  into  the  streets,  all  welcome  her 
With  acclamations.     Never  does  she  fail 
In    wise   discernm;ent,    but   decides    disputes 
Kindly  and  justly  between  man  and  man." 

She  has  the  beauty,  the  position,  and  occupation  of 
the  wife,  and  is  the  second  of  the  incomparable 
group  of  women  that  remain  from  the  Odyssey. 
Penelope  belongs  later  in  the  Epic,  and  makes  the 
third,  and  though  it  is  not  relevant  to  discuss  her, 
she  is  the  lo3^al  woman  who,  through  all  the  heart- 
breaking years,  refuses  to  believe  her  husband  dead, 
and  by  the  far-reaching  spell  of  her  own  womanli- 
ness holds  the  wanderer  against  all  Circes  and  Ca- 
lypsos,  who  would  retain  him  for  their  own  immor- 
tality. 

The  Phaeacian  episode  closes  with  the  people  in 
the  agora  at  prayer  before  their  tutelary  deity. 
They  stand  in  great  fear  of  some  catastrophe  if 
they  do  not  obey  the  god;  this  explains  the  ethical 
purpose  of  the  poet,  and  doubtless  his  literary  in- 

26 


FOREWORD  AND  WANDERLUST 

tent  is  to  protect  himself  against  the  critics  of  his 
time;  if  they  ask  why  the  Phseacians  can  not  be 
found,  he  will  reply  that  perhaps  the  god  de- 
stroyed them;  if  they  are  found,  then  he  will  be 
able  to  say  that  the  intercession  before  the  altar 
and  the  sacrifice  propitiated  the  wrath  of  Poseidon 
so  that  they  were  spared.  Poetic  interest  in  the 
fate  of  the  Phaeacians  is  thus  secured,  and  kneeling 
about  their  patrial  altar  the  people  appear  as 
unique  and  winning  as  the  individual  characters 
portraj^ed.  The  quick  setting  of  the  scene  in  the 
first  line  of  the  sixth  book,  the  introduction  of  the 
goddess  in  the  second  line,  the  splendor  of  the 
palace,  the  symmetry,  serenity  and  regularity  of 
the  garden,  the  frankness  and  simplicity  of  the  per- 
sonages, and  the  religious  faith  of  the  people 
sketches  a  story  of  animate  and  inanimate  beauty 
which  is  nowhere  surpassed. 

The  State  universities  have  almost  banished 
Greek  from  the  curricula,  and  put  their  entire 
emphasis  on  "gainful  occupations."  The  sure  re- 
mains of  Greek  is  found  only  in  the  letters  of  the 
fraternities.  It  may  be  economically  profitable, 
but  it  is  a  serious  educational  loss.  So  long  as  the 
Parthenon  is  pictured  as  the  ideal  of  the  world's 

n 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

fairest  building,  the  Venus  de  ^lilo  as  its  greatest 
model,  while  the  Attic  orators,  historians,  and  tra- 
gedians remain  unsurpassed,  and  the  Odyssey 
stands  the  world's  greatest  imaginative  work,  a 
man  gives  proof  of  his  culture  by  getting  ac- 
quainted with  and  keeping  alive  his  interest  in 
Greek. 

After  the  Phaeacians,  William  James  is  steady- 
ing,  and  then  we  select  "Vanit}^  Fair"  from  the 
ship's  library  bulging  with  novels,  which  we  finish 
just  in  time  to  find  the  lights  on  Cape  St.  Vincent. 


S8 


Chapter  II 

TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  ARMY 

T^7E  traveled  to  Patras  with  2,188  Greeks, 
*  ^  third  reservists,  going  home  for  war  or 
peace.  The  London  negotiations  were  at  a  dead- 
lock \vhen  we  sailed,  and  the  sea  a  welter  of  foam- 
ing mountains,  whipped  into  fury  by  the  gales 
which  swept  up  the  coast  on  January  3d  and  4th, 
raising  the  oscillation  of  the  Manhattan  sky- 
scrapers to  a  maximum.  Tourists  and  Greeks  alike 
had  trouble  in  finding  their  sea-legs ;  thereafter  an 
intimate  observation  of  cabin  by  steerage  and  steer- 
age by  cabin  ripened  into  mutual  understanding 
and  good  wishes.  They  were  tall,  husky  laborers, 
such  as  you  see  on  the  huge  Keokuk  dam  and  in 
railway  construction  gangs.  They  cheered  the 
shoals  of  porpoises  at  the  vessel's  side,  shouted  at 
passing  ships,  and  roared  their  interest  when  the 
wireless  messages  were  read  to  them.  One  became 
a  little  ashamed  at  maritime  commercialism  when 
seeing  them  pay  over  their  scanty  earnings  to  hear 

29 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

the  news.  Every  man  among  them  had  property, 
family,  or  friends  dependent  upon  their  loyalty, 
and  the  self-sacrificing  way  they  rose  to  that  in- 
definable passion  for  country  and  home  we  call  pa- 
triotism, was  as  sturdy  as  it  was  pathetic. 

The  first  climax  came  on  Saturday  night.  The 
report  of  the  threatened  withdrawal  of  the  Turkish 
envoys  from  the  peace  negotiations  was  read.  On 
the  instant  spahr,  saloon,  and  main  decks  aft  were 
s^^  arming  with  a  veritable  mob.  The  second-cabin 
Greeks  pressed  up  to  the  rail,  and  a  sea  of  angry, 
determined  faces  were  silhouetted  against  the  black 
night.  A  young,  muscular  chap,  a  student  for  a 
few  months  at  Roberts  College,  foreman  in  a  bridge 
construction  gang,  climbed  up  to  the  hurricane 
deck  and  made  a  speech,  which  he  reproduced  for 
me  on  Sunday  morning.  Flashlight  kodak,  steno- 
graphic notes,  and  the  voice  of  Demosthenes  would 
be  needed  to  give  any  hint  of  its  real  effect.  He 
was  waving  a  photograph  when  he  began,  and  the 
speech  was  about  as  follows: 

"This  is  a  picture  of  four  brothers;  three  of 
them  are  now  in  the  army,  and  I  go  with  the  third 
reserves,  so  all  of  us  will  fight  the  Fez.  To-night 
the  news  is  for  war ;  to-morrow  we  shall  hear  again. 

30 


TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  ARMY 

We  want  no  peace  until  the  Islands,  Crete,  and 
Salonica  belong  to  Hellas.  By  the  blessed  Virgin, 
by  the  blessed  Joseph,  by  the  blessed  ikons  in  the 
churches,  by  the  blessed  America,  ^^here  I  have  hard 
work  [meaning,  I  think,  a  good  job],  plenty  to 
eat,  and  am  treated  like  a  free  man,  I  say,  'Down 
with  the  Fez ;  long  live  Hellas !'  " 

Just  at  this  time  a  Greek  flag  was  flung  out  on 
the  mdzzen,  and  the  2,188  sang  the  Greek  hymn. 
Then  there  were  shouts  like  the  yelps  of  wolves 
and  the  roar  of  lions,  "Down  with  the  Fez !"  Then 
eight  or  ten  groups  joined  hands  and  with  hand- 
kerchiefs, like  children,  played  ring-around-a-rosy ; 
after  an  hour  of  effervescence  and  slow  subsidence 
of  feeling  one  of  the  Greeks  raised  "America,"  and 
we  heard  these  aliens  sing  the  new  hymn  already 
grown  dear. 

The  Laconia,  with  another  3,000,  was  in  the 
harbor  of  Algiers  at  the  same  time  our  ship  was 
there.  The  two  ships  lay  at  anchor  scarcely  150 
feet  apart.  After  our  tour  of  the  city  and  its 
environs  we  sat  on  deck  and  watched  the  different 
groups  call  to  each  other.  Then,  as  late  in  the 
afternoon  the  Laconia  pulled  out,  the  air  w^as  rent 
with   cannon   crackers,   torpedoes,   and   the   5,000 

31 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

joined  In  the  Greek  hymn.  To  hear  them  sing 
made  me  think  of  the  Germans  after  the  Battle  of 
Leuthen.  Frederick's  army,  28,000  strong,  had 
beaten  the  Austrians  with  80,000.  It  was  there 
that  Frederick  got  his  schrdge  Stellung  to  work 
with  such  precision  and  success  as  it  had  not  been 
used  since  Alexander  employed  it  at  Arbela.  When 
the  pursuit  was  over  and  the  army  drew  into  camp, 
a  grenadier  started  up  an  old  church  hymn.  The 
military  bands  fell  in,  and  soon  the  whole  army 
was  singing.  Many-voiced  like  the  Covenanters, 
it  sounded  across  the  hills  to  the  watchful  King: 

"Gib,  dass  ich's  thu'  mit  Fleiss  was  mir  zu  thun  gebiihret, 
Wozu  mich  Dein  Befehl  in  meinem  Stande  fiihret; 
Gib,  dass  ich's  thiie  bald,  zu  der  Zeit  ich's  soil 
Und  wenn  ich's  thu',  so  gib  dass  es  gerathe  wohl." 

The  Greek  chorals  and  the  German  hymns  add 
vastly  to  the  enthusiasm  of  a  brigade.  The  Ger- 
mans sing  better;  no  oratorio  can  equal  the  music 
made  by  a  brigade  of  the  German  army  one  night 
at  Mainz  as  they  sang  "Wacht  am  Rhein"  and 
"Nun  danket."  But  the  Greeks  sing  w^ell,  and 
when,  at  11.30  o'clock  of  the  day  we  landed  at 
Patras,  670  were  entrained  and  pulled  out  of  the 
depot  for  the  siege  of  Janina,  which  three  weeks 

32 


TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  ARMY 

later  surrendered,  they  y^ere  still  singing  the  Greek 
hymn,  interspersing  it  with  the  yell,  "Down  with 
the  Fez !"  We  visited  the  hospital,  where  400 
Greek  wounded  were  in  charge,  saw  500  Turkish 
prisoners  in  barracks,  and  after  two  ^^eeks  with 
them  we  offer  two  observations :  The  Greeks  have 
the  great  hatred  which  is  requisite  for  strong  per- 
sonalities and  a  great  nationality — at  present  it  is 
hatred  of  the  Turk ;  by  and  by,  if  the  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society  reaches  them,  it  will  be  hatred  of 
things  un-American.  Then  they  have  the  great 
love  which  unifies  and  clarifies.  Now  it  is  for 
Hellas,  but  by  and  by  it  will  be  love  for  American 
ideals.  The  po^^er  of  this  great  antipathy  and 
affection  is  primal  for  future  Americanism.  Pa- 
triotism burns  among  them  with  a  steady  glow. 
Tens  of  thousands  have  hurried  from  America 
to  help  drive  the  Turk  out  of  Europe ;  everywhere 
in  Patras  we  were  told  that  the  best  soldiers  in 
the  army  came  from  America.  They  brought  with 
them  a  spirit  and  fortitude  which  animated  the 
rank  and  file  and  reached  up  to  the  officers  and  in- 
spired even  the  throne  itself.  The  United  States 
is  the  university  for  the  world's  democracy.  It 
beckons  to  its  educative  influence  the  peoples  of  all 
3  33 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

lands.  The  Government  is  missionary  in  the  Phil-  . 
ippine  Islands,  must  sooner  or  later  become  police- 
man in  Mexico  and  Central  America ;  but  teacher, 
with  schoolhouse,  laboratory,  and  courses  in  op- 
portunity for  self-help,  self-support,  self-control, 
the  United  States  has  been,  is,  and  must  remain. 
It  takes  a  world-voyage  to  learn  how  the  common 
people  yearn  to  go  to  America.  Here  speaks  the 
sovereign  voice  in  the  coming  fortunes  of  mankind. 
From  Patras  we  sailed  up  the  Ionian  Sea  past 
Ithaca  and  Corfu  to  Brindisi.  The  rocky  coast, 
the  ancient  Acarnania,  looks  uninhabitable.  Far 
across  an  inlet  w^ith  our  field-glasses  we  could  lo- 
cate Missilonghi.     Ithaca  deserves  the  line  of  Ten- 

•^        '  "Among   these  barren   crags." 

Greece,  as  compared  wdth  New^  England,  is  bar- 
ren, and  that  to  an  lowan  is  extreme.  The  flocks 
winding  along  the  steep  slopes,  or  back  and  forth 
on  the  zigzags ;  the  lights  which  twinkle  from  the 
rocks  as  day  begins  to  fail ;  the  moan  of  the  sea, 
and  the  heavy  beat  of  the  surf  on  the  rocks  is  weird 
and  fascinating.  But  the  passengers  on  the  Derna, 
an  Italian  ship,  are  even  more  interesting  than  the 
rock}',  precipitous  coast,  though  we  stayed  late  on 

S4i 


TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  ARMY 

deck.  James  Anthony  Froude  is  reported  to  have 
said  once  in  CaHfornia,  when  they  were  trying  to 
persuade  him  to  go  to  Yosemite,  that  he  "would 
rather  travel  a  thousand  miles  to  talk  to  a  sensible 
man  than  to  walk  to  the  end  of  the  street  for  the 
finest  view  in  America."  We  had  both  the  view 
and  the  interesting  people  on  the  Derna.  When 
the  air  began  to  grow  chill  we  adjourned  to  the 
saloon  to  cultivate  the  acquaintance  of  a  dozen 
Italian  army  officers  going  home  from  the  conquest 
and  occupation  of  Rhodes,  and  two  nurses  of  the 
Italian  Red  Cross  service,  who  had  been  doing  vol- 
unteer work  in  the  Greek  hospitals.  These  latter 
told  the  most  piteous  tales  of  the  tennble  hunger 
of  the  Turkish  wounded ;  their  last  request  before 
taking  the  anjEsthetic,  and  the  first  after  the  effects 
of  the  anaesthesia  had  passed,  was  "bread."  The 
Turks,  according  to  their  report,  were  simpl}^  starv- 
ing on  the  campaign ;  an  army  goes  on  its  belly ; 
they  simply  could  not  fight.  The  nurses  were  evi- 
dently superior  in  birth  and  education  to  the  men, 
spoke  excellent  English,  and  acted  as  our  interpre- 
ters for  a  conversation  with  the  senior  officer,  a 
major,  who  seemed  to  regard  the  war  between  Italy 
and  Turkey  as  of  tremendous  import.     They  w^re 

35 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

all  happy  over  the  taking  of  Tripoli,  and  they  were 
willing  to  talk  about  that  the  whole  evening.  Bis- 
marck offered  Tunis  to  Italy  a  generation  ago,  and 
the  Italians  have  repented  their  failure  to  take  it 
ever  since.  Now  the  Tripolitan  war,  entered  upon 
to  protect  the  Banca  de  Roma  from  loss  by  reason 
of  large  investments  in  oases  land,  has  fired  the 
national  heart  and  coalesced  the  different  factions 
— Italy  has  always  been  a  land  of  faction — into 
something  approaching  nationality.  The  nurse  re- 
ferred rather  proudly  to  the  failure  of  the  pope 
to  punish  a  bishop  who  had  entered  into  the  war 
on  the  popular  side,  and  the  major  retorted  that 
he  "would  never  be  made  a  cardinal."  The  women 
dismissed  the  Methodists  as  socially  unimportant, 
either  in  America  or  Italy,  but  the  major  set  great 
store  by  their  patriotism,  because  Miss  Italia  Gari- 
baldi had  given  her  adhesion  to  the  despised  sect. 
They  scorned  both  Fairbanks  and  Roosevelt,  but 
the  major  to  my  great  enjoyment  insisted  that  they 
were  Masons,  and  not  Methodists  at  all.  The  major 
was  plainly  less  loyal  to  the  Church,  and  wished  to 
discuss  the  disendowment  of  certain  convents  and 
monasteries,  which  the  women,  while  disdaining  any 
interest  in  the  recluse  life,  sniffed  at  as  though  they 

36 


TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  AR:\IY 

were  listening  to  a  discussion  of  the  Fourth  Dniien- 
sion  or  a  plan  to  erect  a  signal  station  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  planet  IVIars.  The  major  went 
further  and  stated  it  as  an  economic  problem  In 
Italy  requiring  solution  as  to  how  to  restrict  the 
number  who  should  be  permitted  to  join  the  mo- 
nastic orders;  he  wanted  a  larger  navy,  a  better- 
paid  army,  and  was  free  to  criticise  the  administra- 
tion for  its  peace  treaty  with  Turkey  and  the  sup- 
port of  the  Austrian  diplomatic  attempt  to  keep 
Servia  from  the  Adriatic,  by  Italy. 

Horace  described  the  Romans  of  Ills  day  as  "in- 
ferior to  sires  who  were  in  turn  Inferior  to  theirs," 
and  as  "likely  to  leave  an  offspring  more  degraded 
than  themselves."  It  seems  utterly  untrue  of  mod- 
ern Italy.  Victor  Immanuel,  like  a  Cassar,  sleeps 
under  the  open  dome  of  the  Pantheon ;  King  Hum- 
bert, when  suddenly  the  plague  broke  out  In 
Naples,  sent  the  message  to  Borodino,  where  he 
had  promised  to  attend  a  festa,  "At  Borodino  they 
miake  merry,  at  Naples  they  die ;  I  go  to  Naples !" 
All  their  foreign  secretaries  have  stood  solidly  by 
the  Dreibund,  and  the  Influence  of  Germany  has 
been  steadying  and  commendable.  Tripoli  seems 
to  us  an  entire  economic  loss,  but  nations,  like  men, 

37 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

find  their  lives  by  losing  them.  Both  Italy  and 
Greece  have  a  new  spirit,  and  not  since  the  division 
of  the  Eastern  and  Western  empires  have  so  many 
strong  formative  influences  been  felt  in  the  Hellenic 
and  Italian  peninsulas. 

It  is  profitless  to  speculate  on  what  might  have 
happened;  for  example,  if  Alexander,  of  Alexan- 
dria, had  not  been  elected  to  the  presidency  of  the 
Nicene  Council ;  and  if  Hosius,  of  Cordova,  had  not 
given  adhesion  to  the  Athanasian  party,  and  if  the 
Arian  heresy  had  gained  the  decision,  what  would 
have  been  the  ultimate  effect?  Would  Christianity 
have  gone  forward  by  the  same  tremendous  leaps, 
or  would  it  have  displa^j^ed  the  lack  of  passion  and 
organizing  power  so  characteristic  of  modern  Arian- 
ism?  Is  there  something  apostolic  and  missionary 
in  that  insoluble  mystery  we  call  the  Trinity,  which 
vitalizes  indifference  into  zeal  and  gives  initiative 
and  radiation  to  missionary  effort  ?  And  so  we  in- 
quire about  the  Council  of  Trent.  Before  the  Ref- 
ormation, notably  in  the  eighth,  tenth,  and  twelfth 
centuries,  the  mediaeval  Church  was  accompanied 
and  confronted  by  tremendous  reforming  forces. 
Many  concessions  were  wrung  from  the  hierarchy 
by  its  enemies,  and  one  can  not  but  admire  the 

38 


TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  ARMY 

graceful  wa}'^  the  church,  prior  to  the  Reformation, 
yielded  to  the  inevitable  and  was  ready  to  acqui- 
esce in  the  spirit,  "so  the  church  has  always 
taught."  Want  of  accommodation  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age  produced  the  Reformation.  The  found- 
ing of  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  members 
speedily  gained  control  of  the  Council,  made  the 
body  intolerant  instead  of  concessive ;  then  certain 
secular  rulers  discerned  the  democratic  elements 
which  were  inherent  in  the  movements  for  ecclesi- 
astical freedom,  and  tacitly  consented  to  the  reform 
of  the  church  to  the  standards  of  St.  Francis. 
One  is  bewildered  when  he  reflects  on  the  unity  and 
power  of  the  ecclesia,  had  the  spirit  of  accommoda- 
tion prevailed  and  the  body  remained  undivided. 
Whatever  else  the  Reformation  accomplished  or 
failed  to  accomplish,  it  gave  what  from  that  day 
we  must  call  the  Roman  Church  a  critic  and  a  rival. 
Both  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  were  recog- 
nized by  the  Treaty  of  Augsburg,  and  this  recog- 
nition brought  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  each 
before  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion.  Henceforth 
a  cardinal's  cap  for  a  boy  of  thirteen,  and  the  in- 
dulgence tickets  of  Dr.  Tetzel  would  be  held  up  to 
the  merciless  criticism  of  a  rival.     The  value  of 

39 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

such  criticismi  is  inestimable.  In  Spain,  without 
this  corrective  influence  the  condition  of  the  Church 
is  less  encouraging;  but  in  Italy,  pressed  upon  as 
Romanism  is  by  a  vigorous  Protestantism,  which 
is  in  hearty  alliance  with  the  civil  rulers,  the  refor- 
mation is  reforming.  Then  there  is  less  hostility 
to  the  spirit  of  accommodation.  The  laity  have 
been  called  into  greater  activity,  and  that  very  fact 
reduces  ceremonies  and  officialism  to  a  minimum. 
In  America,  where  the  fires  of  denominational  criti- 
cism are  hottest,  the  Roman  Church  is  really  the 
strongest.  In  the  same  way  the  Italian  Church, 
by  reason  of  the  enlarging  consciousness  of  the 
nation,  its  political  affiliation  with  Germany,  the 
swarms  of  tourists  who  treat  the  pope  as  one  of  the 
sights  of  Europe  rather  than  as  the  Spiritually  In- 
fallible, the  break-away  of  France  from  even  the 
semblance  of  adherence  to  the  Holy  Roman  Eccle- 
sia,  grows  strong,  and  if  the  great  ecclesiastical 
foundations  w^hich  imperil  the  economic  independ- 
ence of  the  kingdom  can  be  dissolved  or  in  some 
way  restored  to  a  proper  share  in  the  burdens  of 
the  kingdom,  the  Italian  Church  will  once  more  be 
out  in  the  w^orld  a  disembodied  spiritual  existence, 
and  the  Reformation,  though  late  in  amving,  will 

40 


TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  ARMY 

have  completed  its  work.  The  Italians,  like  the 
Greeks  are  in  a  constant  flux  coming  and  going  to 
America;  it  is  this  which  gives  Protestantism  such 
modifying  power.  For  the  first  time  in  a  decade 
for  the  fiscal  year  which  closed  with  June,  1913, 
the  Italians  were  equaled  in  the  number  of  immi- 
grants they  sent  to  America  by  the  Poles ;  they 
are  tied  now;  hitherto  they  have  led.  In  the  last 
four  years  900,000  Italians  have  arrived  in  Amer- 
ica, and  500,000  have  gone  home.  A  big  world- 
education  must  be  involved  in  this  tremendous  folk- 
wandering.  That  this  affects  the  whole  fabric  of 
Church  and  State  in  Italy  can  not  for  one  moment 
be  doubted. 

Apart  from  the  Spanish  domination  of  the  papal 
Curia,  the  merciless  way  in  which  certain  personal 
acquaintances,  modernists,  have  been  compelled  to 
see  their  books  go  into  the  Index  ExpurgatoriuSy 
and  the  economic  problem  referred  to  by  the  major, 
there  is  much  to  commend.  All  over  the  East  we 
could  not  but  feel  that  the  Latin  priests  and  sister- 
hoods, wherever  we  met  them,  were  superior  to  the 
like  orders  of  the  Russian  Church.  They  have  the 
greatest  religious  earnestness;  they  refuse  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  "civil  contract"  idea  of 

41 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

marriage,  and  the  Church  remains  unquaHfied  in 
its  opposition  to  divorce.  It  seems  to  me  idle  to 
raise  an  alarm  about  the  increasing  power  of  po- 
litical Romanism  in  America,  just  as  it  is  unthink- 
able to  doubt  the  patriotism  of  the  American 
bishops.  We  venture  the  opinion  that  if  the  name 
of  Woodrow  Wilson  were  substituted  for  that  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  in  the  bull  of  excommunication  of 
1570,  that  not  one  American  bishop  would  support 
it.  Likewise  w^e  feel  certain  that  the  Archbishop  of 
Manila  is  pained  beyond  words  at  the  foolish  re- 
quests the  young  clerks  in  the  office  of  the  papal 
ablegate  prefer  to  the  Island  government  in  his 
name,  and  is  grieved  to  the  heart  at  the  lapses  ac- 
cording to  the  standards  of  the  English-Irish- 
American  priests,  of  his  mestizo  and  Tagalog 
clergy.  No  propagandism  can  turn  the  ages  back- 
ward. They  will  not  preach  an  infallible  Church 
by  and  by;  fewer  and  few^er  will  choose  patron 
saints ;  less  and  less  traditions  of  doubtful  credence 
will  find  acceptance,  and  in  the  good  time  coming, 
with  the  election  to  the  papal  chair  of  some  liberal 
cardinal  the  Church  will  come  to  be  as  compre- 
hensive as  even  Protestants  desire. 

With  musings  like  these  we  bade  these  new-found 

42 


TWO  WEEKS  WITH  THE  GREEK  ARMY 

friends  good-bye,  took  a  final  look  at  Corfu  and  a 
turn  on  the  deck,  and  woke  to  find  the  Derna  ap- 
proaching Brindisi,  whence  Porapey  set  out  to 
battle  with  the  pirates,  to  which  Horace  came  on 
the  "excursion,"  and  where  Frederick  Barbarossa, 
on  his  cinisade,  built  the  great  castle  which  is  still 
associated  with  his  name.  Brindisi  is  the  naval  base 
of  Italy,  and  the  castle  houses  the  clerks  and 
draughtsmen  associated  with  the  department  of 
naval  construction.  It  is  the  port  of  departure 
for  the  English  mails  brought  overland  by  fast 
trains  from  London  and  Paris.  At  Algiers  and 
Patras  we  had  gone  on  shore  by  tugs  and  lighters ; 
here  at  Brindisi  we  part  company  with  docks.  Ex- 
cept at  Singapore,  where  the  work  of  dock  con- 
struction has  been  undertaken,  and  at  Calcutta, 
where,  if  the  river  is  at  the  right  level,  you  may 
go  aboard  by  a  gang-plank ;  but  everywhere  else 
in  the  East  it  is  the  "lighter"  that  carries  you  back 
and  forth.  Only  when  you  reach  Manila  and  go  up 
to  a  dock  once  more,  do  you  appreciate  your  fellow 
countrymen  at  their  full  trade  value. 


43 


Chapter  III 

i 

THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

AT  Brindlsi  we  first  felt  the  commercial  rivalry 
^  between  the  English  and  Germans.  Brindisi 
as  a  port  is  attempting  to  rival  Naples.  The  Ger- 
mans use  the  latter ;  it  is  headquarters  for  the  Nord- 
deutscher  Lloyd,  while  the  English,  looking  for 
the  most  direct  routes  and  shortest  lines,  have  con- 
centrated at  Brindisi.  The  Peninsular  and  Ori- 
ental Company  are  the  immediate  English  repre- 
sentatives. While  each  port  has  shipping  of  all 
nationalities,  Brindisi  is  the  one  Italian  port  where 
the  Dreibund  does  not  avail.  The  virulence  of  the 
fight  for  trade  between  the  two  countries  is  that  they 
are  practically  one  blood,  both  Protestant,  and  by 
intermarriage  of  the  Hannoverians,  who  were  Ger- 
man to  begin  with,  and  the  Hohenzollerns  the  fami- 
lies are  immediately  as  well  as  remotely  one.  By  all 
the  laws  of  family  comlity,  past  friendship,  and 
national  ideals,  they  should  be  allies,  and  that  Eng- 

44 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

land  should  continue  to  be  fast  friends  with  France 
and  Russia,  and  Germany  remain  in  political  alli- 
ance \^ith  Austria  and  Italy  is  one  of  the  anomalies. 
One  prefers  to  think  of  the  brave  old  days  when 
Frederick  II  of  Prussia,  now  called  Der  Grosse, 
and  liis  little  kingdom  was  rimmed  round  by  a 
wall  of  enemies;  Marie  Theresa,  the  Austrian  she- 
wolf,  in  full  cry  for  the  recapture  of  Silesia,  the 
French  urged  on  by  Madame  Pompadour,  the  Rus- 
sians with  Elizabeth,  the  Saxons,  and  the  Heilige 
Romische  Reich,  and  the  S\^edes  bought  up  by  the 
Russians  and  the  French  were  all  in  one  vast  camp 
against  him.  Happily  for  Protestantism,  England 
happened  to  have  a  king  for  five  years  in  that  crisis. 
We  do  not  refer  to  George  II,  then  living  at  Wind- 
sor, though  he  was  full  uncle  to  Frederick,  nor  in- 
deed to  any  one  of  the  Georges.  They  probably 
desen-ed  the  scintillating  observation  of  Lord  Mac- 
aulay,  that  "each  particular  George  was  a  little 
more  stupid  than  the  George  who  immediately  pre- 
ceded him."  We  speak  of  William  Pitt,  the  only 
king  England  had  in  that  century,  and  he,  like  a 
Methodist  preacher,  had  to  move  on  at  the  end  of 
five  years.  And  Frederick  sent  to  Pitt,  asking 
men  for  his  line  and  money  for  his  war  chest.    Pitt 

45 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

had  recruiting  troubles  of  his  own,  and  annual 
deficiencies  for  his  budget  also,  as  even  then  the 
British  war  debt  was  in  process  of  making.  But 
Pitt  sent  him  his  blundering  Hanoverian  troops, 
and  Frederick  loaned  him  a  general  who  made  them 
an  army.  Then  he  made  a  treaty  to  furnish  him 
£600,000  each  year  for  five  years.  Never,  accord- 
ing to  Carlyle,  did  the  English  get  such  good  fight- 
ing for  so  small  a  subsidy.  In  those  five  years  Pitt 
and  Frederick  ladeled  out  destiny  to  the  world  for 
five  hundred  years  to  come.  Pitt  conquered  in 
America,  laid  the  beginnings  of  the  Indian  Empire, 
established  England  in  South  Africa,  and  even  cap- 
tured Manila.  What  a  difference  it  might  have 
made  if  some  minister  other  than  Bute  had  settled 
the  details  of  the  treaty.  And  Frederick  did  full 
share,  for  he  beat  the  French  at  Rossbach,  and 
then,  one  month  later,  whipped  the  Austrians  at 
Leuthen,  and  in  approximately  six  months  gave  the 
Russians  such  a  drubbing  at  Zorndorf  that  they 
have  respected  the  Germans  ever  since.  He  kept 
Silesia  and  made  good  the  "brotherhood"  plighted 
between  the  Duke  of  Silesia  and  the  INIarquis  of 
Brandenburg  200  years  before.  And  these  two  na- 
tions ought  to  be  in  the  same  camp  now,  and  yet 

46 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

their  diplomacy  threatens  more  to  world's  peace 
than  anything  on  the  chess-board  of  affairs.  Ger- 
many woke  to  colonizing  enterprises  late,  and  has 
found  the  English  ready  to  maneuver  them  out 
anj^where  they  can.  The  Germans  have  been  fore- 
stalled; it  is  no  idle  boast  to  repeat  that  "Eng- 
land has  a  man-of-war  twenty-four  hours  from 
everywhere."  It  ^^ould  rejoice  me  to  see  the  Ger- 
mans take  Syria,  and  England  would  in  the  long 
run  profit  by  her  consent  to  this  desirable  consum- 
mation. 

While  the  Germans  are  doing  exceedingly  well  in 
their  commercial  enterprises,  the  English  have  set 
the  world  an  example  of  the  meaning  of  the 
"mails."  The  overland  mails  arrive  at  Brindisi  at 
11  P.  M.,  and  supposedly  the  mail  steamer  sails 
directly  after  midnight.  The  Isis  and  the  Osiris^ 
twin  ships  of  1,728  tons,  w^hich  carry  the  mail  to 
Port  Said,  are  built  with  reference  to  speed  and 
the  actuality  of  not  sailing  on  time.  On  our  par- 
ticular sailing  date  the  mail  was  forty  minutes  late 
in  arriving  at  the  docks,  and  unusually  heavy.  Al- 
most 9,000  sacks  were  to  be  transferred  to  the  Isis. 
The  porters  are  each  given  a  lath-shaped  tally- 
stick,   notched,   and  about   15   inches   long.      The 

47 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

tally-sheet  is  a  big  bucket  with  at  least  ten  com- 
partments, each  containing  ten  sticks.  The  buckets 
are  tallied  on  a  blackboard.  Each  porter  picked 
up  a  sack  of  mail  from  the  wharf,  where  others  de- 
posited them  when  taken  from  the  train,  and  as  he 
passed  the  tallyman,  was  given  one  of  these  sticks, 
which  he  gave  up  to  another  tallyman  on  the  ship's 
deck.  Two  shifts  of  ten  porters  each,  not  counting 
the  men  who  arranged  the  bags,  or  who  stowed  them 
in  the  hold,  made  the  transfer.  The  men  made  a 
round-trip  in  just  one  minute,  so  that  each  shift 
deposited  ten  sacks  each  minute  from  11.40  o'clock 
before  midnight  until  the  moment  we  sailed,  at  6.55 
A.  M.  They  were  exactly  7  hours  and  15  minutes 
in  transferring  the  mlail  from  dock  aboard  ship. 
We  need  not  have  stayed  up  to  see  the  process; 
we  saw  it  again  at  Port  Said,  Aden,  and  Bombay, 
but  nowhere  so  heavy  as  at  Brindisi  and  Port  Said. 
We  left  Brindisi  full  six  hours  late,  but  the  speed 
of  the  his  remedied  that.  The  engineer  speeded 
the  little  flj^er  up  to  21  knots  per  hour,  and  we 
pulled  into  Port  Said  after  47  hours  "on  time." 
The  mail  is  there  transferred  to  the  P.  &  O.  steam- 
ship, which  had  sailed  from  the  Thames  the  week 
preceding.    That  "mail"  is  a  world  institution,  and 

48 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

the  sure  bond  of  union  between  the  tight  little  island 
and  its  far-flung  battle-line  of  dune,  headland,  and 
fertile  empires  in  the  south  continent.  It  is  the 
letters,  papers,  books,  and  packages  which  the  mail 
carries  that  keep  alive  the  sense  of  home  and  braces 
the  young  Englishmen  the  world  over  to  put  on 
his  dresscoat  and  "dine."  No  matter  how  remote 
from  men  and  women  of  his  own  stock,  these  things 
he  does:  he  dines,  reads  the  Times,  Telegraph,  or 
Mail,  and  dates  all  mortal  events  from  the  time  he 
"came  out"  or  "went  home."  The  basic  fact  of 
English  solidarity  is  "the  mail." 

So  we  rush  forward  on  the  Isis  past  Corfu  again, 
see  Argolis,  alongside  Zante,  through  the  Stroph- 
ades,  following  the  general  coast  line  and  laying  a 
course  so  as  to  pass  Crete  on  the  west  and  south, 
with  islands,  lights,  and  ships  to  give  interest  to 
every  waking  moment.  Contrary  to  all  the  pre- 
dictions by  "old  sailors,"  "experienced  travelers," 
and  daring  tourists  in  charge  of  "Cook,"  the  Isis 
rode  like  a  duck,  and  while  the  tremendous  speed 
caused  a  good  deal  of  vibration,  she  was  steady, 
the  small  gi'oup  of  passengers  friendly,  and  the 
voyage 

"Over  tlie  sea,  past  Crete," 

4  49 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

to  the  land  of  the  lotus-eaters  and  the  Nile  was  all 
too  short.  The  massive  statue  of  De  Lesseps 
greeted  us  at  the  entrance  to  the  harbor.  It  was 
dedicated  with  great  pageantry,  the  Emperor  Na- 
poleon III  and  his  empress,  Eugenie,  attended  by 
M.  Oliver,  heralded  in  his  day  as  a  great  minister 
of  finance,  attended  the  fete.  The  statue  is  all 
that  remains  to  associate  the  big  ditch  with  the 
French  people.  They  began  the  Panama  Canal 
also,  and  our  countrymen  are  just  finishing  it. 
Some  plodding  persistence,  some  final  tenacity  the 
French  seem  to  lack.  They  made  an  expedition  to 
Egypt  in  1798.  It  was  thus  that  Napoleon  came 
to  be  associated  with  the  two  other  great  generals 
of  the  ages,  Alexander  and  Caesar,  in  the  affairs 
of  Egypt.  The  directory  planned  the  campaign 
with  a  double  object  in  view:  to  open  a  way  for 
attacking  the  English  in  India,  and  to  remove 
Bonaparte,  for  a  time  at  least,  from  France.  The 
independent  behavior  of  that  general  in  his  Italian 
campaigns,  his  genius  for  military  affairs,  and  his 
ambition,  which  could  not  be  entirely  concealed  un- 
der a  studied  simplicity  of  manners,  rendered  liis 
presence  dangerous  to  their  authority.  Had  Na- 
poleon stayed  in  Egypt,  he  would  have  antedated 

50 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

the  English  colonizing  policy.  His  constinjctive 
talents  were  shown  there  in  striking  ^^  ays ;  he  caused 
strict  justice  to  be  practiced  between  man  and  man, 
gave  free  passage  to  pilgrims  going  to  and  from 
Mecca,  and  encouraged  all  kinds  of  commerce.  He 
gave  land  to  the  slaves,  to  be  cultivated  on  their 
own  account.  He  granted  equal  rights  of  inherit- 
ance to  the  children  of  the  same  parents,  and  im- 
proved the  condition  of  the  women  by  giving  them 
a  certain  portion  of  the  husband's  property  at  his 
decease.  He  endeavored  to  restrain  polygamy,  en- 
couraged mamage  between  his  soldiers  and  the 
natives,  and  established  schools  for  the  instruction 
of  the  young  French,  Copts,  and  Arabs  in  geog- 
raphy, mathematics,  and  the  French  language,  and 
was  a  friend  to  shows,  public  games,  and  other 
diversions.  Here  we  have  the  origin  of  the  great 
civilizing  movements  felt  in  the  East  to-day.  Con- 
templating the  effects  of  his  invasion,  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  his  influence  was  greater  upon 
the  East  or  upon  Europe.  The  Egyptian  expe- 
dition came  like  a  thunderbolt  upon  that  part  of 
the  world.  To  them  it  had  remained  unchange- 
able, and  seemed  inaccessible  to  modification.  Like 
all  heathenism,   the  petty   nations   subject  to   the 

51 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Sublime  Porte  believed  themselves  invincible.  The 
exaggerated  opinion  they  held  of  their  own  im- 
portance was  necessarily  strengthened  by  the  con- 
duct of  European  powers  who  for  a  long  series  of 
years  permitted  the  Barbary  pirates  to  make  war, 
impose  tribute  and  ransom  upon  every  government 
of  Christendom  with  impunity.  The  successes  of 
the  French  in  Egypt  caught  the  imagination  of 
the  Mussulmen,  and  their  experiences  taught  them 
to  appreciate  the  mjilitary  superiority  of  the  peoples 
of  the  West.  Then  came  the  United  States,  and 
Decatur  finished  what  Bonaparte  had  begun. 

The  De  Lesseps  statue  was  dedicated  in  1869. 
One  year  after.  Napoleon  III  withered  at  Sedan, 
the  Germans  were  in  full  swing  for  Paris,  and  on 
a  gorgeous  autumn  day  out  at  Versailles,  on  the 
steps  of  the  great  palace  of  Louis  XIV,  Bismarck, 
Von  Moltke,  and  William  I  promulgated  with  much 
blare  of  trumpets  and  many  "Lebe  hochs"  the 
German  Empire. 

You  land  by  the  Cook's  boat  and  learn  once  for 
all  that  harbor  graft  is  peculiarly  Oriental.  That 
at  Port  Said  is  typical ;  rowers,  boat,  health  officer, 
customs,  and  viseing  of  passports  brings  it  up  to 
the  high  level  of  its  justly  celebrated  sister  port 

52 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

Jaffa.  That  will  be  the  one  and  only  appearance 
of  a  "passport"  to  be  "viseed"  if  you  learn  quickly 
at  school,  as  we  suspect  you  do.  The  single  ex- 
cellence of  Port  Said,  beyond  giving  entrance  to 
the  Suez  Canal,  is  that  it  is  four  hours  only  from 
Cairo,  whither  by  fast  train  de  luxe  we  are  whirled ; 
along  the  canal  embankment,  steam  shovels  pump- 
ing its  enlargement;  stretches  of  desert,  land  of 
Goshen,  Tel-el-Kebir,  the  thousand  quaintnesses 
of  Oriental  life,  the  mailtiform  devices  for  hfting 
the  Nile  water  to  the  desert  sand,  the  long  caravans 
of  camels,  the  nodding  palms,  the  pyramids  which 
thirty  miles  away  from  Cairo  you  see  lifting  them- 
selves above  the  plain,  and  the  mysterious  Nile,  are 
like  flashes  of  holy  vision,  quick  passing  and 
abiding. 

We  followed  the  regular  order  in  Cairo:  saw  the 
mosques,  the  museum,  old  Cairo,  rode  camels  out 
to  the  pyramids,  saw  the  secretary  bird  in  the  zo- 
ological gardens,  took  street-car  to  the  shapely, 
shining  obelisk  of  Heliopolis,  and  were  properly 
impressed  by  the  sleeping  cave  of  Joseph  and 
Mary,  the  place  where  Pharaoh's  daughter  drew 
Moses  from  the  water,  and  shopped  to  our  pocket- 
book's  discontent  in  the  bazaars.    But  we  were  more 

53 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

interested  in  the  great  dams  the  EngHsh  have 
builded,  and  the  canals  which  lead  the  water  for 
irrigation  purposes  over  millions  of  acres  that  pre- 
vious to  the  English  occupation  were  desert ;  in  the 
electric  lights  they  have  introduced,  the  trams  they 
have  installed,  the  fine  macadam  roads  they  have 
laid,  and  the  eye  clinics  they  maintain.  What  an 
uproar  it  made  in  the  world  when  Gladstone  bom- 
barded Alexandria !  He  had  his  hand  forced  in 
the  Egyptian  matter.  He  had  spent  liis  life  in 
opposition  to  the  Jingo,  and  \^hen,  on  a  sudden,  he 
seemed  to  throw  away  the  traditions  of  a  lifetime, 
the  world  stood  aghast.  His  enemies  cursed  him 
for  what  they  privately  supposed  was  his  political 
sagacity,  and  his  friends  hesitated,  fearing  that  he 
had  been  overwhelmed  b}"  some  strange  lust  or 
greed  of  power.  The  English  never  forgave  him 
for  the  death  of  Gordon,  but  if  any  work  of  merit 
might  atone  for  the  delays  which  caused  the  Khar- 
toum tragedy,  the  results  of  the  English  occupation 
of  Egypt  should  be  counted  full  atonement.  Once 
■^^e  heard  liim  speak  in  the  House  of  Commons ; 
that  was  worth  going  to  England  to  hear.  He  was 
just  coming  back  with  a  liberal  majority  for  his 
last  premiership ;  he  was  no  longer  the  young  man 

54 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

who  had  phrased  the  adjectives  still  in  use,  "The 
Unspeakable  Turk,"  and  changed  the  Roman  ora- 
toi^s  platform  ''Civis  Romanus  Sum'*  into  "I  am 
an  Englishman,"  to  the  delight  of  the  galleries  and 
the  discomfiture  of  the  Tories ;  but  his  voice  still 
had  the  bugle  call  in  it,  and  there  spake  a  man 
with  "authority."  The  old  scribes  of  the  days  of 
Christ  discovered  the  note  of  authority  in  Christ's 
teacliing,  and  hasted  from  His  presence,  saying, 
"He  taught  as  one  that  had  authority."  That 
authority  of  character  and  commission,  the  only 
"authority"  there  is,  Christ  had  and  Gladstone 
had.  The  ordination  of  our  deacons  and  elders 
always  appealed  to  me.  It  is  worshipful  to  hear 
in  some  great  church,  packed  for  the  Conference 
occasion,  a  bishop  v,ith  a  melodious  voice  say, 
"Take  thou  authority."  As  a  matter  of  ritual, 
we  all  assent  to  it,  but  as  more  than  that  we  should 
all  object.  Authority  is  neither  a  thing  that  a 
man  can  have  by  natural  descent,  nor  by  gift;  it 
is  a  matter  of  character  like  Christ,  and  Gladstone 
accumulated  his  by  fifty  years  spent  in  the  service 
of  every  good  cause.  Then  for  a  few  brief  years 
he  was  the  people  of  England.  Lotze  says  the 
soul  is  where  it  acts,  and  with  the  commission  of 

55 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

the  English  Commons  behind  him,  he  did  such  an 
act  of  high  sovereignty  as  no  premier  had  accom- 
phshed  since  Wilham  Pitt.  The  immediate  effect 
was  the  Battle  of  Tel-el-Kebir,  but  the  actual  out- 
come was  the  suppression  of  Madhist  fanatics  from 
Cairo  to  the  Soudan,  the  better  economic  conditions 
which  no\^'  bless  the  Egyptian  fellahin,  the  trans- 
formation of  several  palaces  into  modem  hotels, 
and  the  two  great  dams  across  the  Nile  at  Cairo 
and  Assouan,  which  alone  make  the  bombardment 
of  Alexandria  with  its  consequent  occupation  of 
Egypt  the  crowning  act  of  Gladstone's  career. 
Of  course  to-day,  with  improved  facilities  for 
travel,  land  values  immensely  enhanced,  trade 
flourishing,  order  maintained,  and  the  beginnings 
of  decency  and  sanitation  inaugurated,  the  cry 
goes  up,  "Egypt  for  the  Egyptians."  It  is,  of 
course,  assumed  that  those  raising  this  cry  are  the 
"Egyptians."  They  have  not  forgiven  Roosevelt 
yet  for  having  told  them  point  blank  out  that  in 
assassinating  public  officials  they  were  using  "li- 
cense," not  liberty. 

Three  celebrities  we  saw  in  Cairo,  two  of  whose 
names  all  readers  will  recognize.  The  first  was  Gen- 
eral Lord  Kitchener,  adviser  to  His  Majesty  the 

56 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

Khedive,  Consul  General  and  English  Government 
combined.  We  saw  several  "residents;"  each  of 
the  native  Indian  States  has  one,  and  whoever  may 
happen  to  be  called  king,  khedive,  rajah,  maha- 
rajah,  nawab,  gaekwar,  or  begum,  be  sure  before- 
hand that  he  is  actually  subordinate  to  the  afore- 
said "resident."  Lord  Kitchener  is  chief  of  all 
the  residents,  though  the  Indian  viceroy  might 
equal  him.  The  khedive's  part  in  the  Egyptian 
Government  is  to  go  to  mosque,  and  spend  the 
millions  Tvith  which  a  paternal  English  Government 
solaces  his  idleness.  General  Kitchener,  like  all  the 
residents,  is  quartered  in  great  state.  The  doors 
to  his  audience  chamber  are  kept  by  many  attend- 
ants, and  he  is  hedged  in  by  the  pomp  and  circum- 
stance in  which  Oriental  and  European  peoples  seem 
to  delight.  He  was  in  uniform  with  yards  of  gilt 
and  gold  brocade,  a  decoration  on  his  breast,  and  in 
the  moment  of  our  view  was  in  the  act  of  stepping 
into  a  State  carriage.  An  escort  waited  upon  his 
going,  and  yet,  with  all  his  equipage,  he  did  not  ex- 
ceed in  fuss  and  feathers  Lord  Hardinge  at  Delhi. 
His  predecessor  in  this  high  office  was  Lord  Cromer. 
These  two  represent  England's  contribution  to  the 
pacification,  development,  and  control  of  Egypt. 

57 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

It  was  our  good  fortune  also  to  see  General  Por- 
forio  Diaz,  former  president  of  Mexico,  walking 
on  the  porch  of  the  Shepheards.  The  old  general 
was  rather  short  of  stature,  and  looked  and  walked 
as  did  the  former  president  of  Iowa  Wesleyan,  the 
late  Senator  Harlan,  one  timie  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior in  Lincoln's  Cabinet.  He  had  an  attendant 
walking  on  either  side  of  him:  a  physician  and  a 
valet,  we  were  told.  He  walked  back  and  forth 
several  times  on  the  long  balcony  overlooking  the 
street,  as  those  who  have  been  at  Shepheards  will 
remember.  Doughty  old  veteran  he  looked.  My 
predecessor  calls  him  "Diaz  the  immortal."  That 
was  before  the  recent  revolution,  however.  Diaz 
is  to  Mexico  what  Charles  Magnus  was  to  Ger- 
many: a  far-flashing  beacon  illuminating  the  cen- 
turies of  ignorance  which  preceded  him,  and  the 
darkest  century  of  the  Dark  Ages  which  followed 
him.  Diaz  w^as  preceded  by  lawlessness  and  fol- 
lowed by  anarchy.  Madero  had  the  spirit  but  not 
the  strength  of  a  great  ruler.  We  shall  yet  ap- 
plaud President  Wilson  for  refusing  to  recognize 
Huerta  as  even  provisional  president,  and  the 
policy  of  refusing  recognition  to  military  usurpers 
will  make  an  end  of  many  "revolutions"   in  our 

58 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

sister  republics  to  the  south.  What  a  pretty  penny 
we  would  have  given  for  Diaz's  thoughts  as  he 
promenaded  up  and  down  the  hotel  veranda! 

The  third  of  these  men,  though  only  a  Cairo 
guide,  was  as  interesting  to  me.  He  had  been  to 
Mecca,  and  was  therefore  hadji,  and  had  the  def- 
erence of  his  achievement  accorded  to  him  by  all 
those  who  appreciated  what  it  means  to  drink  from 
the  holy  well  and  wash  in  the  water  of  the  Caaba. 
He  wore  a  purple  turban,  and  was  our  guide  for 
five  days;  walked  with  us  through  the  mosques  of 
Hasan,  Iben  Tulone,  and  the  alabaster  one  of  Mo- 
hammed Ali;  recounted  reverently  and,  at  our 
request,  briefly  the  miracles  of  Mohammed,  the 
proofs  of  them,  and  showed  us  with  becoming 
dignity  the  university  where  all  the  professors 
teach  the  Koran,  and  then  showed  us  about 
the  library,  where  the  only  book,  in  many  edi- 
tions and  languages,  is  the  Koran.  We  talked 
much  also  of  the  present  status  of  the  faith  of 
Islam.  He  had  but  one  ^^fe,  deeming  one  sufficient 
for  caring  for  his  house.  Did  not  Mahomet  keep 
women  too  much  in  subjection,  and  will  not  his  re- 
ligion fail  because  of  this  very  subjection.^  "Allah 
made  them  so,"  was  his  Delphic  response.     Again, 

59 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

we  asked  him  about  the  Turk  "raising  a  holy  war" 
— that  scare  with  which  the  daily  papers  regale  us 
T^ith  every  disaster  to  Turkish  policy  or  arms.  The 
hadji  slowly  shook  his  head  and  replied  dolefully; 
"Allah  is  great,"  said  he.  "The  Turk  is  brought 
very  low.  Twenty  millions  of  the  Faithful  in  India 
and  North  Africa  would  give  their  lives  for  the 
Faith;  but  of  what  avail .^  There  is  no  war  equip- 
ment for  them.  Forts,  battleships,  and  munitions 
of  war  are  all  in  the  hands  of  the  Unbelieving 
powers;  one  Maxim  would  shoot  down  a  thousand 
of  the  Faithful  before  they  could  rush  up  a  para- 
pet and  capture  it.     Allah  only  is  great !" 

Egypt  has  never  recovered  from  the  plague  of 
flies;  and  had  another  of  those  enumerated,  in- 
stead of  boils  or  murain  of  beasts,  been  granulated 
eyelids,  it  would  confinn  the  whole  seven  mentioned 
in  the  Exodus  and  establish  the  passing  of  the 
Red  Sea  for  good  measure.  The  nation  was  verg- 
ing toward  blindness  when  the  English  came,  and 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  things  the  missionaries 
do  is  to  treat  those  poor,  afflicted  human  eyes. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  flies  carry  several 
forms  of  eye  infection  as  well  as  the  typhoid  and 
other  enteric  germs.     The  United  States,  by  sani- 

60 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

tation  and  war  on  contagious  diseases,  has  made 
Manila,  filthy  in  1898  as  compared  \^ith  Cairo,  a 
much  wholesomer  place.  But,  then,  the  Americans 
have  been  much  more  abrupt  and  drastic  in  their 
methods  in  handling  alien  peoples,  though  always 
really  democratic,  than  the  English,  who  bear 
themselves  with  much  greater  seeming  deference  to 
native  custom  and  opinion.  But  England  is  the 
first  medical  missionary  and,  like  some  older  prac- 
titioner, is  just  a  little  slow  to  learn  from  your 
Uncle  Sam,  fresh  from  medical  college,  with  an  ex- 
perience as  interne  in  a  modem  hospital,  and  as 
health  officer  extraordinary  in  Cuba,  Porto  Rico, 
Panama,  and  the  Philippines.  We  have  studied 
hymns  for  years,  as  most  pastors  do,  and  supposed 
we  knew  the  literary  merit  and  didactic  value  of 
the  lines : 

"At  even,  ere  the  sun  was  set. 

The  sick,  O  Lord,  around  Thee  lay; 
O   with   what  divers   pains   they   met! 
O  with  what  joy  they  went  away!" 

But  the  eye-sick  of  Egypt  and  the  leprous  poor 
of  Syria,  the  famine-smitten  of  India,  and  the 
pestilence-stricken  of  Burmah  and  China  gives  the 
hymn  a  place,  not  because  it  is  fine  poetry,  but 

61 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

because  of  its  underl3ang  actuality.  It  is  one 
phase  of  Oriental  life  embodied  in  literature,  and 
flowing  back  from  literature  to  bless  life  with  hope 
and  healing.  They  sing  that  hymn  dozens  of 
times  where  we  do  not  sing  it  once. 

The  two  speculative  questions  which  assault  the 
mind  in  Egypt  are  the  age  of  man  on  this  planet, 
and  whether  derived  from  a  common  stock  so  re- 
motely as  to  constitute  five  independent  breeds,  or 
did  they  bear  apart  when,  as  creatures  endowed 
with  mental  life,  they  began  to  be  influenced  by 
innumierable  conditions  of  environment  that  still 
operate  upon  us.^* 

Anthropological  studies  have  long  since  demon- 
strated the  enormous  antiquity  of  man.  However, 
the  dates  of  a  geologist  necessarily  can  not  be  fixed, 
but  move  within  the  widest  limits.  From  the  archae- 
ological standpoint  we  begin  in  Egypt.  Great 
tribute  must  be  paid  by  the  scientist  to  the  early 
dwellers  along  the  Nile.  The  Eg3^ptians  early  de- 
termined the  length  of  the  year  as  365  days,  not 
being  aware  of  the  one-quarter,  or  nearly  one- 
quarter,  of  the  day  additional.  They  divided  this 
year,  divorcing  it  from  the  phases  of  the  moon,  into 
twelve  months  of  thirty  days  each,  with  an  inter- 

62 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

calary  period  of  five  days  at  the  end  of  the  year. 
This,  the  first  practical  calendar  ever  evolved  by 
an  ancient  people,  remained  an  achievement  un- 
paralleled in  any  other  civilization.  Now,  we  know 
that  in  the  period  from  14)0-144  A.  D.  the  calen- 
dar exactly  coincided  with  the  season,  and  that  in 
one  of  the  years  mentioned  the  rising  of  Sothis 
took  place  on  the  first  day  of  the  calendar  year. 
An  entire  revolution  had- been  completed  at  that 
time.  Of  course,  the  revolution  began  1,460  years 
earlier;  viz.,  in  1320  B.  C.  The  next  earlier  revo- 
lution would  therefore  have  begun  in  2780  B.  C. 
But  it  is  impossible  that  this  calendar  was  intro- 
duced as  late  as  the  twenty-eighth  century  B.  C, 
for  that  was  in  the  miidst  of  the  highest  culture  of 
the  old  kingdom.  Moreover,  the  intercalary  days 
are  mentioned  in  what  they  call  the  pyramid  manu- 
scripts, far  older  than  the  old  kingdom.  Then, 
as  it  was  doubtless  formulated  at  a  time  \\hen  the 
seasons  coincided,  roughly  at  least,  with  nature,  we 
must  go  back  another  1,460  years,  and  more  likely 
2,920  years,  so  that  the  oldest  date  in  history  is 
at  least  4240  B.  C,  and  altogether  likely  5700 
B.  C.  But  the  cavemen  go  back  to  25000  B.  C, 
and  even  employing  the  oldest  date,  we  shall  have 

63 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

historical  records  only  for  one-third  of  man's  life 
on  the  planet. 

The  hypothesis  of  the  original  unity  of  the  race 
can  not  be  disproved.  There  is  an  aversion  to  its 
acceptance  on  the  part  of  scientific  inquirers,  based 
on  certain  forcible  natural  analogies,  yet  in  our 
judgment  inadequate  to  compel  belief  in  a  plurality 
of  primitive  types.  There  is  a  general  equation 
of  the  human  being  with  several  constants  and 
many  variables.  In  our  ignorance  of  this  equation, 
not  knowing  the  ratio  of  the  constants  to  the  vari- 
ables, nor  the  method  of  its  physical  realization, 
we  assume,  just  as  in  the  case  of  plants,  an  original 
generic  form,  and  the  races  as  modifications  of  the 
general  type.  No  race  possesses  any  physiologic- 
ally important  organ  denied  to  another ;  the  normal 
number  of  multiple  parts,  such  as  fingers  and  toes, 
is  the  same  in  all  five;  no  single  joint  of  a  skeleton 
is  formed  or  situated  on  different  plans  in  different 
races;  all  are  erect  and  capable  of  speech;  there 
are  no  distinguishing  differences  in  physiological 
processes,  duration  of  life,  pregnancy,  attainment 
of  puberty;  and  finally  the  different  races  can  be 
propagated  by  crossing.  The  hypothesis  that  the 
white  man,  by  the  blazing  sun  of  the  tropics,  dark- 

64 


THE  WAYS  OF  TRADE 

ened  into  the  Negro  is  natural  and  easy,  and  its 
counterpart  is  that  the  primeval  black  man,  under 
favorable  conditions,  has  been  transformed  into  a 
Caucasian.  We  are  told  that  the  facts  do  not 
justify  these  expectations,  and  it  is  replied  that 
the  whole  of  the  continent  of  North  America,  ex- 
tending through  all  the  zones,  was  inhabited  by  a 
cinnamon  race,  in  spite  of  several  modifications, 
identical  throughout,  to  which  only  the  tribes  lying 
in  the  polar  region  do  not  belong.  In  the  tropical 
zone  of  the  old  world,  going  from  west  to  east,  we 
find  Negro,  brown  Malay,  white  Caucasian  races 
living  under  hardly  distinguishable  climatic  condi- 
tions. Then  we  are  told  that — inter-racial  mar- 
riages excluded — the  Caucasian  does  not  take  on 
the  kinky  hair,  velvety  complexion,  and  shape  of 
the  head  of  the  Negro,  nor  the  Negro  the  Cau- 
casian cast  of  countenance,  though  in  a  colder  and 
uncongenial  clime.  But  is  this  not  somewhat  beg- 
ging the  question  ?  Then  the  Hebrew  t^^pe,  though 
dispersed  to  all  climates,  has  been  preserved  un- 
changed. Now,  if  we  knew  the  value  of  the  con- 
stants in  the  generic  equation,  these  facts  might 
settle  it,  but  when  we  are  asked  to  throw  out  all 
past  inter-racial  marriages  in  order  to  establish  five 
5  65 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

races,  we  are  asked  to  assume  a  factor  little  prece- 
dent in  nature.  Mestizos  of  a  hundred  living  va- 
rieties give  denial  to  it.  The  easy  answer  to  this 
unending  speculation  is  that  of  St.  Paul,  "And 
hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to 
dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth." 


66 


Chapter  IV 

THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

T  T  is  not  easy  to  reach  the  Holy  Land.  The  jour- 
-*■  ne}^  from  Egypt  to  Palestine  is  the  matter  of 
a  night's  traveh  Palestine  touches  Egypt,  and 
though  it  does  not  lie  in  the  commercial  zone,  the 
strange  magnetism  that  centuries  have  not  short- 
circuited  still  pulls  a  throng  of  pilgrims  to  it  year 
by  year.  Half  a  dozen  lines  of  steamers  ply  up 
and  down  the  coast,  stopping  when  the  weather 
permits  at  Jaffa,  and  at  Haifa  and  Beirut.  We 
went  by  the  Kosseir,  of  the  Khedivial  Line,  leaving 
Port  Said  late  on  Sunday  afternoon.  She  is 
manned  by  Scotch  officers,  Italian  stewards,  and 
carries  various  nationalities  as  a  deck  crew.  Two 
Mormon  missionaries,  of  the  Southern  Iowa-Mis- 
souri branch ;  an  ecclesiastic  of  the  English  Church ; 
a  young  Methodist  preacher,  "fellow"  at  Drew, 
with  his  wife,  besides  a  large  Hamburg- American 
party,  several  Cook  and  Aboosh  escorted  travelers 
made  up  the  passenger  list.     The  night  w^as  gor- 

67 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

geous  with  stars,  the  yellow  waves  danced  in  the 
moonlight,  the  sea  was  on  its  good  behavior,  and 
walking  down  the  ship's  side  on  a  stairw^ay  at  Jaffa 
to  the  lighter  was  easy  as  any  landing  could  well 
be.  The  passengers  were  finally  sorted  out  and  pro- 
rated by  the  various  tourist  agencies,  and  after  a 
hurried  visit  to  our  hotel  we  were  off  for  a  ride 
about  Jaffa,  along  roads  fragrant  with  orange  or- 
chards, into  various  hospices,  past  Tabitha's  Foun- 
tain, and  lingering  long  in  the  traditional  "house 
of  Simon  the  tanner,  w^io  dwelt  by  the  seaside." 
The  port  at  least  is  beyond  question  the  one  where 
Solomon  landed  the  beams  of  cedar  for  the  temple, 
and  up  the  steep  banks  the  workmen  dragged  them. 
The  Emperor  Vespasian  sacked  the  town,  and  the 
banner  of  Richard  the  Lion-hearted  flaunted  from 
its  citadel.  The  purpling  dawn,  the  olive  trees, 
miles  of  orange  groves  with  their  "apples  of  gold 
in  pictures  of  silver,"  the  golden  sheen  of  midday, 
the  sun  glinting  on  the  violet  hills,  with  the  opal- 
escence of  the  sky  as  evening  gathered,  would  have 
given  a  hundred  pictures  to  Turner.  It  was  a  day 
of  days.  Grove  and  sea,  sky  and  mountain,  and 
the  pageantry  of  nature  inwrought  into  the  fabric 
of  Christianity  were  all  as  Jesus  saw  themi.     We 

68 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

had  not  3^et  felt  the  disappointment  and  disillusion- 
ment which  the  cluttering  of  churches,  mosques, 
monasteries,  hospices,  and  memorials  on  every  little 
plot  of  daylight  is  sure  to  hring.  The  Christian 
faith  is  most  expansive  in  open  spaces,  and  needs 
for  its  setting  flowers,  the  rustle  of  palms,  the 
soughing  of  great  cedars,  and  a  skyline  rising  to 
the  mountains.     These  Jaffa  gives. 

The  railroads  have  broken  into  Syria  in  three 
places :  from  Jaffa  to  Jerusalem,  from  jNIount  Car- 
mel  to  Galilee,  and  thence  on  up  to  Damascus,  and 
again  from  Beirut  to  Damascus.  Then  there  are 
macadam  roads  fronn  Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  She- 
chem  and  Tiberias,  and  winding  around  Bethany, 
Bethlehem,  and  the  great  ridge  to  the  east 
called  the  ]\Iount  of  Olives.  These  latter  were 
built  to  render  the  visit  of  the  Geraian  Emperor 
pleasurable.  These  new  roads  are  not  as  lamentable, 
to  our  thinking,  as  some  travelers  would  have  us  be- 
lieve. They  help  to  give  you  a  view^  of  "The  Land 
of  the  Book"  through  modern  perspective.  To 
ride  a  donkey  across  the  valley  of  Ajalon  may  aid 
to  keep  the  perfunctory  view  of  the  famous  battle, 
but  to  trundle  by  at  a  horse-car  rate  on  a  railway 
train  means  definite  awakenment  to  the  hyperbole  of 

69 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

the  Oriental  mind.  All  the  commentaries  you  have 
studied  and  the  multitudinous  tales  of  travelers  you 
have  read  do  not  impress  you  with  the  vast  imag- 
ination of  the  Eastern  literature  like  the  first  hour 
on  a  railroad  train  from  Jaffa  to  Jerusalem.  We 
saw  the  sun  well  down  toward  the  horizon  shining 
on  the  wondrous  valley  where  Israel  and  the  Amor- 
ites  in  battle's  wrinkled  front  fought  by  thousands. 
The  parade-ground  of  the  Michigan  National 
Guard  at  Ludington  would  accommodate  armies 
ten  times  the  muster  that  could  crowd  themselves 
into  rank  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon.  The  poetry 
of  that  story,  not  the  event  it  pictures ;  the  perfec- 
tion of  its  beauty,  not  its  scientific  veracity, — is 
the  pledge  of  its  perpetual  recital.  The  deeper  we 
enter  into  it  as  poetry,  the  closer  we  come  to  its 
truth.  The  Old  Testament  ought  to  be  read  in 
this  way.  That  old  library  of  thirty-nine  books 
is  not  a  collection  of  documents  from  a  recorder's 
office — old  deeds  musty  and  faded,  but  accurate. 
It  is  the  story-loving  Orientalist  exciting  his  hear- 
ers with  the  glamour,  imagery,  and  magniloquence 
of  the  East. 

Once  we  wrote  for  the  Methodist  Revww  a  pro- 
posed explanation  of  the  meaning  of  the  "double" 

70 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

in  Isaiah,  and  commented  upon  it,  like  the  refer- 
ence Bibles  do,  in  explaining  the  passage,  "Turn 
to  the  stronghold,  ye  prisoners  of  hope,"  by  saying 
that  it  was  an  urgent  request  on  the  part  of  the 
prophet  that  they  should  look  in  the  "strong-box" 
where  the  old  keepsakes  and  documents  were  kept, 
and  that  there  they  would  find  the  "quittance," 
"receipt,"  "double,"  which  at  the  coming  of  the 
jubilee  would  give  back  the  patrimony  for  years 
alienated.  How  the  Hebrew  scholars  did  pull  their 
lexicons  on  the  Scotch  (not  the  Irish)  Kelley — and 
the  poor  writer!  It  was  "not  in  the  dictionary" — 
well,  of  course,  only  by  the  dictionary  could  it  be 
known.  But  if  you  should  see  some  old  hill  family 
in  Bethlehem  telling  over  its  treasures,  counted 
generation  after  generation,  you  will  know  the 
truth  even  if  it  is  not  in  the  dictionary,  and  you 
may  grow  bold  and  tell  the  "graybeards"  in  the 
theological  seminaries  that  we  are  going  to  make 
the  lexicons  from  the  Book.  The  danger  of  a  dic- 
tionary is  that  it  tends  to  become  static.  That  is 
the  trouble  with  a  "creed."  The  Council  of  Trent, 
for  example,  added  a  dozen  articles  to  the  Nicene 
creed,  thinking  they  were  helping  to  elucidate,  but 
in  reality  adding  details  already  insufferably  in- 

71 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

numerable.  It  is  the  purpose  of  all  definition  to 
limit  and  circumscribe:  Jesus  said,  "The  Kingdom 
of  heaven  is  like ;"  and  He  said,  "I  am  the  Light  of 
the  world."  The  poetry,  gorgeous  fancy,  superb 
imagery  of  that  brief  assertion  dominates  all  cen- 
turies since.  But  literalists  would  have  the  solar 
system  dislocated  because  as  Israel  moved  to  battle 
the  warriors  sang  an  old  song, — 

"Sun,  stand  thou  still  upon  Gibeon; 
And  thou,  moon,  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon." 

The  conflict  was  shortened  by  the  day,  not  the  day 
by  the  conflict.  There  was  time,  as  there  always 
is  in  God's  plan,  for  victory. 

And  so  we  "go  up  to  Jerusalem."  The  journey 
runs  at  first  through  cultivated  fields.  Green 
stretches  of  growing  grain  and  vegetable  gardens 
delight  the  eye.  The  orange  trees  hang  heavy  with 
fruit,  the  palms  nod  their  tall  plumes,  and  olive 
groves  with  their  delicate  shades  relieve  the  raucous 
green.  But  the  scene  takes  character  from  the 
camels,  donkeys,  flocks  of  goats,  peasants  in  skirts, 
and  white-robed  women  with  veiled  faces.  Cactus 
and  eucalyptus  remind  you  of  the  semi-tropical 
lands,  but  the  folks  and  animal-world  nominate  the 

72 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

straggling,  unkempt,  stately  East.  As  we  leave 
the  city  we  enter  upon  the  Plain  of  Sharon,  famous 
in  song  and  story.  It  is  at  once  garden  and  battle- 
field. Some  German  colonists,  Templers,  intending 
to  reform  the  world  to  the  standards  of  the  Old 
Testament  prophets  after  the  lovely  harv-ests  are 
all  gathered,  keep  every  available  rood  with  the 
most  scrupulous  care.  The  armies  that  have  fer- 
tilized its  acres  with  their  blood,  and  whitened  it 
with  their  bleaching  bones,  would  fill  a  catalogue. 
Assyrian,  Babylonian,  Egyptian,  Persian,  Roman, 
Austrian,  German,  Spanish,  French,  English  have 
all  marched,  charged,  won  or  lost  on  this  ensan- 
guined plain.  Here  the  royal  poet  of  the  school  of 
Solomon  sang,  "I  am  the  Rose  of  the  Plain,"  as 
millions  of  the  same  "roses"  we  see,  the  narcissi, 
bared  their  soft  breasts  to  the  gentle  wind  and 
flushed  the  whole  plain  with  their  crimson  loveli- 
ness. The  mountains  of  Judea  stretched  along  the 
eastern  horizon.  The  ancient  church  at  Lydda  and 
the  noble  tower  commemorative  of  the  forty  mar- 
tyrs at  Ramleh,  Mizpah,  and  the  Ancient  Gezer 
lift  themselves  into  the  landscape  and  above  the 
surrounding  villages  as  the  train  moves  forward. 
Many  points  of  interest  recall  the  Crusaders,  who 

73 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

with  rich  blazonry  and  in  full  panoply  of  mail 
marched  across  the  plain :  Godfrey,  Prederick  Bar- 
barossa,  Richard,  Saladin  are  the  men  of  blood 
and  iron  that  modem  annals  have  not  allowed  to 
grow  dim.  Every  great  rock  and  almost  each 
scraggy  oak  has  a  name  or  association,  and  the 
ride,  at  first  a  slow  ascent,  becoming  a  heavy  grade, 
needing  double  engines  to  accomplish,  gives  happy 
time  to  recall  the  ancient  lore  and  allow  fancy  and 
memory  to  fling  about  the  names  and  places  their 
subtle  pageantry.  The  impregnability  of  almost 
every  point  against  assault,  except  by  famine  and 
disease,  is  seen  at  a  glance.  "The  strength  of  the 
hills"  was  the  happy  portion  of  Judah  and  Ben- 
jamin. We  enter  the  sacred  city  through  the 
breach  in  the  wall  alongside  the  Jaffa  gate,  made 
to  accommodate  the  kaiser,  and  just  inside  we  find 
the  Grand  Hotel,  with  its  welcome  of  a  blazing  fire, 
grateful  in  that  altitude  of  2,500  feet,  after  the 
warm  airs  of  Jaffa  and  Cairo.  We  hear  the  Mc- 
Watters  Quartet  sing  in  St.  Andrew's  Church,  and 
sit  late  into  the  night  planning  our  eight  days  in 
the  out-of-door  spaces  of  the  Holy  Land. 

It  is  easy  to  go  to  Jericho  since  the  macadam 
road  was  built  for  the  Kaiser.    After  all,  he  did  not 

74 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

go  lest  a  gainsaying  diplomatic  world  should  say, 
"Let  him  go  to  Jericho."  Likewise  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  Shechem,  and  Bethlehem  are  easy  of  access, 
because  the  Turk  built  the  roads  to  them  in  hos- 
pitality to  their  last  friend  and  ally.  We  went 
to  the  three  Jerichos :  saw  Elisha's  Fountain,  drove 
across  the  valley — where  now  utter  desolation  ob- 
tains, rode  a  boat  in  the  swift  current  of  the  Jor- 
dan, went  swimming  in  the  Dead  Sea,  saw  Horeb 
and  Pisgah,  wondered  if  that  might  be  the  Mount 
of  Temptation,  followed  the  devious  windings  of 
the  brook  Cherith,  and  climbed  on  foot  the  weary, 
precipitous  path  up  which  Christ  toiled  for  the 
final  scenes  on  Calvary.  We  stopped  at  Bethany, 
saw  the  reputed  tomb  of  Lazarus  and  the  neglected 
home  of  the  two  sisters ;  we  also  went  to  Bethlehem, 
visited  the  Church  of  the  Nativity  and  the  well  at 
the  gate,  for  whose  sweet  water  King  David  yearned 
and  whither  fought  his  "worthies"  and  came  back 
with  it;  meditated  with  delight  upon  the  "Field  of 
Boaz;"  rode  donkeys  about  the  walls  of  Jerusa- 
lem, visited  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  descended  into 
King  Solomon's  stables,  saw  his  quarry,  Bethesda, 
the  tombs  of  the  kings,  surveyed  the  hills  to  the 
north  of  the  city,  from  whence  the  successful  attack 

75 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

finally  came ;  saw  the  Dead  Sea,  the  Jordan  Valley, 
and  the  Hol}'^  City  from  the  great  rocky  ridge 
called  the  IVIount  of  Olives ;  we  too  searched  out 
the  "stations  of  the  cross"  located  by  photogra- 
phers some  years  ago,  where  the  light  would  be 
sure  to  give  good  films,  and  turned  sadly  from  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  where  an  obese  Rus- 
sian priest,  standing  in  the  veritable  "sepulcher," 
took  "alms"  of  five  roubles  each  from  three  hundred 
Mujik  pilgrims  that  afternoon;  and  sought  out 
what  is  colloquiall}^  called  "Gordon's  Calvary,"  be- 
cause the  great  Englishman,  on  his  way  to  Khar- 
toum, pronounced  it,  in  liis  judgment,  the  true  site. 
The  "Wailing  Place,"  which  we  saw  on  Friday, 
in  a  pelting  rain,  is  the  scene  which  beggars  all 
description.  We  had  visited  "the  upper  room"  and 
the  house  of  Calaphas,  and  came  by  narrow  streets, 
filthy  beyond  words,  to  the  abrupt  fortress-like  wall 
adjacent  to  the  temple  inclosure.  Here  a  crowd 
of  Jews,  both  men  and  women,  were  gathered  to 
lament  the  fallen  greatness  of  their  beloved  Zion ; 
they  looked  poor,  distrait,  and  hopeless ;  they 
wailed,  read  out  of  greasy-looking  books,  patted 
the  wall  affectionately,  kissed  it,  prayed,  and  one 
old  man  with  a  long  beard,  his  back  to  the  wall, 

76 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

fists  thrown  out  and  menacing,  cursed  rather  than 
prayed.  Meanwhile  beggars  phed  their  trade,  and 
the  walls  made  no  answer.  No  wonder  some  ge- 
ogi'aphers  think  this  wailing-place  the  valley  of 
Baca.  They  have  been  doing  that  every  Friday 
since  Titus  battered  down  the  walls,  and  the  in- 
iTishing  Roman  cohorts  tore  the  crown  of  beauty 
from  the  queenly  head  of  Jerusalem ;  1 ,843  years 
is  a  long  time  through  which  to  pei'petuate  the 
tragedy  of  degeneracy  and  greed,  and  the  folly 
of  factions,  as  illustrated  in  the  decline  and  fall 
of  the  once  proud  city.  But  older  than  that  is  the 
Supper  which  forty  years  earlier  in  the  upper 
room  He  taught  us  to  keep. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  Holy  Land  that  has  the 
atmosphere  of  Protestant  Christianity  save  what 
is  still  out  of  doors.  The  Mount  of  Olives,  or  so 
much  of  it  as  is  still  unbuilt  upon ;  Gordon's  Cal- 
vary, with  its  "place  of  the  skull,"  and  "the  sepul- 
cher  in  the  garden"  outside  the  present  north  gate, 
the  Plain  of  Sharon,  and  the  Field  of  Boaz,  ad- 
jacent to  Bethlehem,  hint  at  what  the  land  was 
when  the  drama  of  humanity  centered  in  such  un- 
forgettable scenes.  The  flowers,  stars,  mountains, 
and  human  hearts  that  "smile  and  weep"  alone  do 

77 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

not  change.  Not  in  the  myriad  commemorative 
buildings,  but  along  the  rugged  paths  and  ancient 
highways  we  see  with  our  hearts 

"Those  holy  fields 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
Which,  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  were  nail'd 
For  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross" — 

The  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  on  the  con- 
trary, raises  an  interrogation  as  to  whether  it  is 
Christian  or  pagan.  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  owns 
it,  and  Greeks,  Syrians,  Latins,  Armenians,  Copts, 
and  even  the  Anglicans  celebrate  the  mass  in  it. 
The  simple-hearted  kiss  the  stairs  and  stones,  kneel, 
weep,  walk  upstairs  and  downstairs  with  business- 
like devotion,  put  relics  on  the  altars  to  be  sprin- 
kled with  holy  water  by  the  priests,  and  express  in 
a  thousand  different  ways  the  nameless  thirst  and 
passion  of  the  soul  for  goodness,  holiness,  and  God. 
We  are  certain  of  only  one  fact;  that  is,  that  no 
one  knows  the  site  of  the  crucifixion;  and  it  is 
almost  equally  certain  that  it  was  not  where  now 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  rises.  The  at- 
tempt to  show  that  the  old  wall  was  near  at  hand 
and  within,  is  clumsy  in  the  extreme.  But  if  it 
were,  Christianity  is  not  a  superstition,  nor  does  it 

78 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

get  its  character  from  altars  of  gold  and  pealing 
organs,  nor  chanting  choirs.  St.  Peter's,  St.  Paul's, 
St.  John's,  St.  Mark's  and  all  the  other  saints  have 
justification,  but  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
is  a  century-long  misrepresentation  of  Jesus  and 
His  followers,  and  seems  to  be  an  occasion  of  in- 
fidelity, and  not  of  faith.  It  is  superior  to  Monte 
Carlo  because  it  appeals  to  the  weary-hearted,  sick, 
and  contrite,  but  it  is  a  sad  travesty  upon  belief 
in  the  self-sacrificing  Savior,  who  was  crucified 
under  the  open  sky,  appeared  to  many  in  the  walks 
and  highways  about  Jerusalem!,  and  in  His  human 
life  loved  the  sky,  the  mountain,  and  the  lake. 

Out  at  Bethlehem,  where  there  is  some  little  vari- 
ation to  the  utter  poverty  of  the  land  by  reason  of 
the  mother-of-pearl  industry,  a  Syrian  said  to  me, 
"Would  that  either  the  Kaiser  or  the  King  would 
take  Syria."  The  war  between  the  Balkan  allies 
and  the  Turks  had  just  been  renewed,  the  flood  of 
Turkish  brass  coins  from  Tripoli  had  greatly  re- 
duced the  purchasing  power  of  the  currency,  and 
my  orator  was  complaining  about  the  enormities 
of  taxation  as  practiced  at  Bethlehem.  We  heard 
the  same  wish  expressed  in  more  responsible  quar- 
ters.   Many  look  at  Egypt  and  yearn  for  the  same 

79 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

regeneration  the  English  have  wrought  there,  and 
thinking  that  only  the  English  can  bring  it  to 
pass.  Others  credit  the  improvement  in  Palestine 
in  the  years  since  the  German  Emperor  was  there 
to  the  Germans,  and  wish  for  the  Kaiser.  The  Ger- 
mans ought  to  have  Syria,  and  they  would  have  it 
were  it  not  for  the  desolating  fear  in  England  that 
it  would  mean  the  loss  of  the  Suez  Canal,  and  thus 
their  route  to  India  and  Australia.  The  confused 
thinking  that  the  German  military  training  is  only 
to  make  soldiers  and  incite  the  young  Germans  to 
martial  ambition,  obtains  in  America  as  well,  but 
it  is  an  obsession  in  England.  If  the  English 
could  appreciate  what  an  asset  such  a  taking  over 
would  be  to  world-peace,  they  would  encourage, 
not  look  askance  at  it.  An  economic  revival  would 
begin  the  first  year  of  the  German  occupation ;  the 
second  would  see  the  desert  of  Tekoa  irrigated  by 
Jordan  water  through  all  its  wide  extent ;  they 
would  plant  it  to  cabbages,  raise  vegetables,  pas- 
ture it  with  kine  and  swine,  make  all  kinds  and 
varieties  of  wurst,  and  get  great  profit  for  them- 
selves and  all  mankind.  If  either  the  Germans  or 
English  take  Palestine,  let  us  hope  they  will  re- 
quire building  permits  for  any  new  church,  mosque, 

80 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

convent,  or  m)onastery,  to  be  granted  only  by 
Reichstag  or  Commons,  who  we  shall  hope  will  be 
opposed  thereto,  and  perhaps  denude  the  Mount  of 
Olives  of  every  non-economic  building  wliich  now 
disfigures  it.  At  the  same  time  corporation  taxes 
ought  to  fall  with  size  and  certainty  of  non-evasion 
upon  the  indolent  brotherhoods  that  fatten  upon 
the  simple-hearted  from  every  land  who  seek  to 
renew  for  themselves  in  Palestine  the  imperishable 
miracle  of  Christ   formed  within  us  the  hope   of 

The  nonconformist  foothold  in  Jerusalem  is 
limited  to  the  American  colony  and  the  work  of  the 
Missionary  Alliance,  under  independent  auspices, 
related  to  it.  The  Methodists  have  the  beginnings 
of  a  fine  plant  given  by  the  late  Mrs.  (Bishop) 
Newman,  with  an  endowment,  and  accepted  by  the 
General  Committee  of  Foreign  Missions  some  four 
years  ago.  The  building  has  been  made  habitable 
as  a  residence,  and  a  summer  assembly  inaugurated. 
The  underlying  pui^ose  of  maintaining  a  school 
for  post-graduate  and  missionary  study  meets  a  real 
need.  The  lot  adjacent  should  be  purchased,  and 
when  interested  friends  can  be  found  to  erect  a  suit- 
able auditorium  and  commons,  it  is  certain  to  bc- 
6  81 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

come  a  student  center  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
the  whole  Church.  The  question  of  an  auditorium, 
while  not  immediately  pressing,  is  an  urgent  duty 
laid  upon  the  denomination.  The  Methodists,  who 
as  tourists  by  the  hundred  visit  the  Holy  City, 
ought  to  have  a  church  properly  fitted  up  for 
simple  worship,  and  a  pulpit  available  where  Meth- 
odist ministers  can  preach  Jesus  and  the  Resurrec- 
tion in  the  locality  of  its  origin.  We  appear  to  be 
the  only  ecclesia  led  by  the  providence  of  events  into 
opportunity  with  its  accompanying  responsibility. 
The  alternative  is  to  perpetuate  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity in  the  city  of  David  by  the  English,  Scotch, 
and  German  State  establishments,  already  well- 
housed  and  with  formalities  of  long  standing.  If 
nonconformity  has  a  mission  anywhere,  it  is  in 
Jerusalem,  where  spiritual  freedom  has  been  cor- 
rupted and  repressed  by  hierarchies  for  three  thou- 
sand years.  Ecclesiastics  are  the  harsh  "realisms" 
of  faith;  the  "romanticism"  of  our  holy  religion, 
with  its  love,  laughter,  and  passion,  should  be  some- 
what looked  to. 

We  turn  from  the  Holy  City,  the  loftiest  out- 
look on  the  globe  over  spiritual  history,  with  a 
new  glow  on  our  souls  and  a  heightened  under- 

82 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  JESUS 

standing  of  what  Christ  means  to  the  world  of 
ideals  and  individuals.  Christianity  could  not  long 
keep  Jerusalem  for  its  capital.  It  is  a  world- 
religion  :  catholic,  all-embracing,  expansive.  Pal- 
estine was  too  small,  too  remote  from  the  tides  of 
war,  adventure,  and  trade,  which  must  bear  it  to 
all  lands.  Christianity  must  be  represented  more 
and  more  as  an  affair  of  actual  life,  the  result  of 
man's  reaction  upon  his  environment,  and  of  his 
own  experiment  in  the  things  of  the  Spirit.  It 
has  its  genesis  in  the  lives  of  persons  and  communi- 
ties. It  is  the  religious  life  of  each  person.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  doctrinal  Christianity ;  as  a  vital 
force  it  exists  only  in  the  Hves  of  individual  Chris- 
tians. It  is  an  attainment  rather  than  a  donation 
imposed  upon  man  from  without.  We  can  exem- 
plify it  in  any  country,  but  its  dissemination  is 
not  by  might  and  by  power.  That  it  enlarges  year 
by  year,  century  after  century,  is  high  proof  of 
the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  under  which  we  live. 


83 


Chapter  V 
ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

WE  returned  to  Port  Said  by  the  Kossier. 
The  embarkment  at  Jaffa  was  memorable, 
if  peril  of  life  by  launching  through  a  foaming 
surf,  risk  of  limb  by  leaping  at  a  flying  staii-way 
on  the  side  of  the  ship,  sea-sickness  meanwhile,  and 
triumph  in  success  afterwards,  can  make  it  so.  The 
ship  was  late  in  weighing  anchor,  and  it  was  mid- 
forenoon  of  the  next  day  before,  for  the  third 
time,  we  greeted  the  statue  of  De  Lesseps  pointing 
to  his  world-transforming  ditch.  The  traffic  of 
Port  Said  is  peculiar  to  itself.  Ships  of  all  nations 
come  and  go ;  some  wait  for  passage  through  the 
canal,  others  coal;  mail  transfers  go  on;  rows  of 
Egyptian  sailboats,  with  long  lateen  yards,  dirty 
thwarts,  high  prows,  and  low  sides,  with  rowboats 
shuttling  back  and  forth,  and  half  a  dozen  sullen 
battleships,  among  them  the  Hamediyeh,  just  es- 
caped from  the  Greeks,  made  the  harbor  an  ani- 
mated scene.     The  town  is  nothing  but  a  transfer 

84 


ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

station  from  shipboard  to  rail  and  from  rail  to 
sliip ;  the  hotels,  liquor  saloons,  houses  of  doubtful 
character  are  such  as  invariably  gather  about  large 
transient  temiinals.  We  feel  about  Port  Said  as 
Christian  did  when  he  climbed  back  from  the  castle 
of  Giant  Despair  into  the  pilgrim  path  again, 
"Into  that  place  may  we  enter  no  more."  The  re- 
mainder of  the  day  was  spent  ashore,  and  after 
dinner,  wdth  the  first  bundle  of  letters  from  home 
which  we  had  received,  we  were  rowed  out  to  the 
Moldavia,  just  as  the  Smart  Set  from  the  ship 
were  rowing  in  for  a  "hop"  at  one  of  the  large 
hotels. 

The  Moldavia  is  a  typical  P.  &  O.  liner  bound, 
when  we  boarded  her,  for  Australia,  carrying  the 
mails,  and  with  a  full  complement  of  passengers. 
Among  them  were  Captain  Harlow,  U.  S.  N.,  and 
his  wife ;  the  Aga  Khan,  distinguished  head  of  the 
Indian  Mohammedan  organization,  who  enraged 
all  Mussulman  India  by  the  sapient  letter  published 
in  the  India  Times  the  day  we  landed  in  Bombay ; 
four  members  of  the  famous  Leander  Rowing 
"Eight,"  several  English  officers,  the  members  of 
their  families,  and  a  swarm  of  young  clerks  going 
out  to  colonial  offices.     We  were  assigned  to  the 

85 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

same  table  with  four  of  these.  They  all  partici- 
pated in  the  deck  sports,  and  won  prizes  either  there 
or  at  the  promenade  ball  given  the  night  before  we 
reached  Aden.  They  were  probably  twenty-five 
years  old,  and  we  watched  their  habits  and  became 
happily  acquainted  with  them.  They  began  the 
day  with  Scotch;  they  had  a  second  round  on  deck 
with  other  comrades  in  the  steamer  chairs  about  mid- 
forenoon;  they  had  Scotch  at  the  table  prepara- 
tory to  lunch,  drank  it  instead  of  tea  in  the  after- 
noon, and  at  night  drank  either  champagne  or 
port  wine  for  dinner,  and  besides  took  a  nightcap 
of  Scotch  at  the  bar  before  retiring.  They  had 
come  all  the  way  from  London  on  the  Moldavia, 
and  the  bill  of  one  of  them  at  Aden,  which  we 
saw  presented,  was  between  £11  and  £12  sterling. 
He  told  me  confidentially  that  he  "was  not  feeling 
fit."  Every  one  of  them  had  been  told  that  they 
could  not  live  in  India  or  the  Straits  Settlements 
without  whisky,  and  that  it  was  the  sure  preventive 
of  all  fevers  and  contagious  diseases.  We  felt  like 
telling  them  that  they  could  not  live  and  drink 
whisky  the  way  they  were  doing  on  the  Moldavia. 
The  mortality  among  men  of  their  class  in  India 
and  China  needs  no  other  explanation.     Like  many 

86 


ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

hotels,  the  P.  &  O.  steamers  can  not  be  run  profit- 
ably without  the  "bar." 

The  mails  were  aboard  early  and  the  ship 
steamed  slowly  along  to  keep  the  shore  wash  at  a 
minimum.  We  sat  on  the  upper  deck  and  over- 
looked the  sandy  desolation.  The  railroad  stations 
break  the  monotony  on  the  right  bank,  and  immense 
saltworks  with  great  hills  of  salt,  one  looking  as 
large  as  the  old  Hoosier  slide  at  Michigan  city, 
appear  on  the  left.  Huge  sand-pumps  for  widen- 
ing the  canal,  and  ships  many  pass  us  Europe- 
bound.  A  troop-ship,  its  decks  crowded  with  men 
in  khaki,  bands  playing  and  flags  flying,  raised  a 
great  cheer  as  our  ship's  orchestra  played  "Rule, 
Britannia."  The  men  of  many  diff*erent  south  con- 
tinent colonies,  the  various  occupations  which  they 
followed,  the  hopes  they  cherished,  the  opinions 
they  uttered,  and  the  eccentricities  of  nationality, 
individuals,  and  changing  panorama  of  view  made 
the  conversation  and  debate  of  that  first  day  on 
the  Moldavia^  while  we  passed  through  the  canal, 
broadening  and  informing  in  the  extreme.  Fellow 
passengers  in  a  ship  soon  become  intimate.  Meet- 
ing hour  after  hour  in  a  small  space,  walking  to- 
gether on  deck,  sitting  at  the  same  table,  they  pass 

87 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

first  into  acquaintance,  and  then  freely  communi- 
cate their  adventures  and  their  purposes. 

The  canal  itself  always  started  an  Englishman, 
when  talking  with  an  American,  on  the  respective 
merits  of  the  Panama  and  Suez  Canals.  "How, 
in  your  opinion,  w^ill  it  affect  shipping.'"'  we  were 
asked  dozens  of  times ;  and  would  we  arbitrate  the 
coast-T^^se  traffic  tonnage  exemptions.'^  and  would 
the  Canadian  railroads  stand  for  it  if  we  did  not.? 
were  inten'osations  almost  as  certain  to  follow.  The 
Australians  were  nowhere  near  so  friendly  and  con- 
senting to  everything  the  Englishmen  said  as  we 
supposed  they  would  be ;  they  had  opinions  of  their 
own,  and  took  particular  pains  to  inforai  me  that 
the  ships  which  Australia  and  New  Zealand  were 
adding  to  the  imperial  navy  were  for  home  guard, 
and  not  for  cruising  abroad.  They  seemed  to  re- 
gard the  cockney  and  the  drinking-habits  of  the 
young  clerks  much  as  did  we. 

By  comparison  with  the  Panama  enterprise,  the 
Suez  Canal  is  a  small  affair.  The  excavations  we 
passed  through  were  all  of  soft  materials  and 
desert  sand,  capable  of  being  removed  by  pumping 
or,  at  worst,  by  dredging,  and  when  the  French 
opened  it  they  had  actually  taken  out  seventy-two 

88 


ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

million  cubic  yards  of  material,  and  piled  it  along- 
side the  ditch.  At  Panama  two  hundred  and  twenty 
millions  of  cubic  yards  of  excavation  have  been 
made,  most  of  it,  to  loosen  it,  first  blasted  b}"  dyna- 
mite, then  loaded  on  to  cars  and  hauled  for  miles 
either  to  the  big  dam  or  to  distant  dumps.  The 
big  dam  at  Panama  has  no  parallel  at  Suez,  and 
its  terrific  retaining  walls  to  hold  the  waters  of 
the  Chagres  River  staggered  the  French  capitalists 
and  engineers.  They  turned  it  over  to  the  Ameri- 
cans with  the  Culebra  cut  practically  untouched. 
The  late  Colonel  Gaillard,  the  engineer-commis- 
sioner who  had  charge  of  it,  reported  that  five  and 
one-half  millions  cubic  yards  had  been  removed 
before  he  took  charge  at  Culebra,  and  that 
112,500,000  cubic  yards  have  been  removed  there 
alone  since.  Twenty-four  millions  cubic  yards  have 
been  added  to  the  estimates  by  the  board  of  inter- 
national engineers  by  the  oozing  of  the  sides  lat- 
erally into  the  open  cut  at  Culebra  by  reason  of 
the  enormous  pressure  of  the  weight  above.  A  mil- 
lion cubic  yards  at  Culebra  means  a  solid  block 
of  stone  three  hundred  feet  long  and  as  wide  and 
as  liigh.  There  were  one  hundred  and  eighteen  such 
blocks.     On  the  Panama  hither  side  the  excavation 

89 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

began  at  Gold  Hill,  a  point  as  high  above  the  sea 
level  as  the  Washington  Monument  rises  above  the 
Potomac,  and  on  the  other  side  it  was  only  one  hun- 
dred feet  lower.  The  total  excavation  made  at 
Panama  would  require  a  string  of  freight  cars  one 
hundred  thousand  miles  long  to  hold  its  mass — 
long  enough  to  reach  four  times  round  the  earth. 
The  Panama  Canal  was  given  up  by  the  French, 
who  began  it,  and  is  now  completed;  the  English 
bought  them  out  at  Suez.  Some  genius  for  finish- 
ing things  the  mercurial  Frenchman  seems  to  lack, 
but  his  initial  impulse  is  manifest. 

We  proposed  to  our  fellow  travelers  that  by  the 
purchase  of  the  canal  zone,  and  because  of  our 
treaty  relations  to  the  Republic  of  Panama,  we 
were  in  no  such  relations  to  the  Panama  enterprise 
as  the  country  was  when  the  Hay-Pauncef  ote  treaty 
was  negotiated.  The  clause  in  that  treaty  was 
copied  verbatim  from  that  guaranteeing  the  equal 
rights  of  all  nations  at  Suez,  which  is  hourly  evaded 
by  rebates  to  English  shipping.  No  one  seemed  to 
think  that  we  should  hesitate  to  arbitrate  on  that 
account;  even  had  we  digged  from  New  York  to 
San  Francisco,  we  should  have  still  been  obligated 
to  give  England  the  same  rights  to  joint  control 

90 


ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

that  inhered  in  the  original  pact.  The  latter  prop- 
osition seems  to  have  equal  validity  with  the  former. 
The  coast-wise  traffic  should  pay  the  same  freight 
rates  as  the  ocean-going  tonnage,  but  that  is  in  no 
wise  because  of  the  treaty.  Congress  should  notify 
our  English  cousins  that  since  we  own  the  canal- 
strip  by  purchase,  we  regard  it  as  American  terri- 
tory and  send  the  retort  courteous  which  we  heard 
so  often  from  Lord  Salisbury  concerning  Vene- 
zuela, "There  is  nothing  to  arbitrate."  England, 
Germany,  and  America  ought  to  be  hard  and  fast 
allies  for  world-peace  and  for  settled  governments 
in  tropical  countries,  but  this  is  not  because  of  any 
example  England  has  set  us.  A  little  frankness  and 
a  business-like  an'angement  of  the  tonnage  rates 
will  settle  the  whole  question  satisfactorily,  unless 
Congi'ess  "stands  pat,"  in  which  case  only  the 
Canadian  railroads  will  have  any  cause  for  com- 
plaint. 

It  grew  warm  rapidly  after  leaving  Suez,  where 
we  were  detained  for  several  hours  on  a  sandbar, 
which  we  struck  through  a  slight  deviation  from 
the  harbor  course.  We  needed  all  kinds  of  clothing 
in  the  five  days,  the  temperature  ranging  from  the 
shivering  cold  of  the  Mediterranean  mid-winter  to 

91 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

the  penetrating  sun  of  the  tropics.  It  was  a  quick 
transition  from  overcoats  and  woolens  to  summer- 
wear.  We  stood  khaki  for  two  days,  and  then  gave 
ourselves  up  to  the  luxury  of  duck.  Several  mis- 
sionaries seemed  ready  for  the  hot  weather,  but 
looked  cold  and  needing  heavier  clothing  until  the 
Red  Sea  air  warmed  them  up.  They  must  have 
suffered  dreadfully  in  Northern  India,  if  they  were 
bound  thither. 

The  loyal  English  subscribed  over  £63  to  pro- 
vide prizes  for  deck  sports  and  the  fancy  dress  ball, 
which  are  regular  features  of  every  out-going  jour- 
ney. Had  it  not  been  serious,  it  would  have  been 
laughable  to  observe  the  way  those  having  the  rec- 
reations in  charge  insisted  on  the  Americans  get- 
ting full  share  in  the  events  and  prizes.  The  first 
prize  for  the  "most  original  costume  improvised  on 
ship"  was  finally  assigned,  after  many  countings, 
to  Mrs.  (Captain)  Harlow,  who  at  the  last  moment 
draped  herself  in  an  American  flag,  provided  by 
the  gallant  captain  of  the  Moldavia.  She  appeared 
with  a  big  burly  rigged  up  as  John  Bull.  Happily 
the  elect  lady,  who  was  also  asked  to  present  the 
prizes,  did  her  part  in  most  demure  and  engaging 
fashion,  and  insisted  that  a  special  prize  should  be 

92 


ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

given  to  the  "second  best,"  who  had  in  such  strange 
fashion  come  into  competition  with  the  "blood 
brotherhood"  and  "hands  across  the  sea"  necessi- 
ties of  the  occasion,  as  judged  by  the  captain.  It 
was  the  saving  grace  for  the  whole  affair.  The 
captain  showed  the  gallant  Englishman  he  was  by 
singing,  with  a  cornetist  to  fill  in  between  the 
stanzas,  and  repeating  to  a  volleying  encore,  the 
song,  "Who  carries  the  guns?"  By  the  time  he 
had  named  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Wales, 
Canada,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  the  crowd 
would  have  stood  even  for  a  sepoy. 

We  had  cricket  nets  rigged  up  on  the  deck  each 
day  to  give  those  who  wished  to  keep  in  practice 
full  opportunity ;  the  game  seemed  very  tame  to  us, 
and  there  is  surely  more  excitement  in  one  baseball 
game  that  goes  twelve  innings  than  in  all  the 
cricket  played  in  England  for  a  year.  It  was  an 
incitement  to  comment  to  witness  the  cricketers  quit 
when  the  afternoon  bell  for  tea  struck ;  a  game 
that  will  allow  tea  to  break  in  on  it  can  never  fully 
satisfy  the  American  crowd.  Then  there  is  not 
sufficient  nip  and  tuck  in  it ;  games  to  enthrall  a 
crowd  must  run  close  enough  to  keep  interest  until 
the  last  inning  has  ended ;  that  is  the  quality  that, 

93 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

on  analysis,  seems  to  me  most  magnetizing  to  Amer- 
icans in  the  National  game ;  one  can  keep  interested 
in  a  score  that  opens  the  last  innings  with  one  to 
tie  and  two  to  win;  given  skill  and  headwork,  they 
may  pull  the  victory  out  even  at  the  last;  but 
cricket,  while  once  in  a  year  you  might  happen 
upon  a  "hair-raising"  finish,  is  more  likely  to  keep 
on  like  the  brook,  forever.  A  game  that  may  be 
played  with  white  flannels,  and  leave  them  immacu- 
late at  the  finish,  will  not  satisfy  democracy. 

But,  while  the  game  does  not  suit  me,  the  way  the 
English  run  the  world  does  excite  my  admiration; 
at  Aden  it  dawned  upon  my  dull,  lethargic  thinking 
apparatus  that  Britain  iniles  the  sea  not  by  excess 
of  battleships,  but  by  control  of  the  coaling  sta- 
tions in  all  the  East.  At  some  point  west  of  Alex- 
andria and  north  of  Malta  you  may  coal  ship  under 
particular  national  auspices,  but  on  the  North 
African  coast,  within  naval  striking  distance  of 
Port  Said,  you  may  do  it  only  by  permission  of 
His  Britannic  Majesty.  You  can  sail  or  row,  but 
to  proceed  under  steam  is  by  England's  nod. 
There  is  nothing  at  Aden  except  a  few  ostrich 
feather  peddlers,  the  British  garrison,  and  coal. 
Kipling  sang  of  Singapore: 

94 


ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

"Hail,  motlier!     East  and  West  must  seek  my  aid 
Ere  the  spent  gear  may  dare  the  ports  afar; 
The  second  gateway  of  the  wide  world's  trade 
Is  mine  to  loose  or  bar." 

Since  the  American  occupation  of  Manila  that  is  not 
quite  so  true  of  Singapore,  but  at  Port  Said,  Suez, 
Aden,  Ceylon,  Bombay,  Calcutta,  Rangoon,  and, 
for  that  matter,  at  Hong  Kong  and  Shanghai,  while 
the  commercial  rivalry  with  Germany  may  proceed, 
England  speaks  the  last  word  of  command.  It  is 
this  priceless  control  of  the  ways  of  trade  and  cam- 
paign, these  stations  with  coal  and  battleships,  that 
make  all  other  naval  powers  second  rate,  no  matter 
how  many  ships  of  war  may  float  the  opposing  flag. 
That  is  why  it  is  so  difficult  to  candidly  propose 
that  the  Germans  should  have  their  way  in  Syria. 
Beirut  and  Haifa  w^ould  at  once  become  a  threat 
at  the  lines  of  communication.  The  United  States 
has  far  more  potentiality  by  a  series  of  supporting 
naval  bases  than  either  Germany  or  France.  We 
divide  control  of  the  Atlantic  with  England.  San 
Francisco,  Hawaii,  Guam,  and  Luzon,  w^ith  the 
coast  harbors,  except  for  Japan,  give  us  practical 
command  of  the  North  Pacific ;  the  French  lost  their 
continuity  of  position  in  the  Eastern  world  when 
they  quit  Egypt. 

95 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Had  we  sailed  one  week  earlier  or  one  week  later, 
we  should  have  gone  direct  to  Bombay  without 
change.  As  it  was  we  bade  good-bye  to  our  Mol- 
davia friends  at  Aden  and  boarded  the  Salsette 
lying  in  the  harbor  with  steam  up  waiting  for  us. 
She  is  a  fine  six-thousand-ton  ship,  wearing  a  broom 
forward  and  sporting  a  rooster  at  her  peak.  She 
makes  the  alternating  week  connection  for  the 
P.  &  O.  at  Aden  for  Bombay.  She  is  trim  as  a 
private  yacht,  can  iTin  like  the  his,  and  keep  it  up 
for  months ;  her  officers  are  gentlemen,  the  table- 
service  a  continual  besetment,  and  the  nights  we 
spent  upon  her  were  a  wonder  to  our  uninformed 
eyes.  From  her  deck  we  first  saw  the  Southern 
Cross  hang  glorious  in  the  evening  sky ;  we  watched 
the  phosphorescence  gleam  along  the  ship's  sides, 
and  the  fl3^ing  fish  go  skimming  over  the  water ; 
Indians,  thin,  barefooted,  looking  ill-nourished, 
w^earing  only  shirts  and  trousers,  Aryan-faced, 
with  deep-set  eyes,  stole  cat-footed  about  the  deck, 
and  such  a  five  days  for  pleasure  and  wonder  we 
have  never  known.  Of  ships  many  that  with  stout 
planks  or  steel  compartments  have  kept  out  the  sea 
from  us  while  we  sailed,  second  only  to  the  Siberia, 
of  the  Pacific  Mail,  we  reckon  the  Salsette.   Though 

96 


ENGLAND  ALL  THE  WAY 

we  were  eight  hours  late  out  of  Aden,  we  reached 
Bombay  on  the  hour  and  found  that  brave-hearted 
missionary,  W.  E.  Bancroft,  superintendent  of  the 
dialect  work  in  Bombay  and  environs,  founder  of 
the  new  trade  school,  preacher,  scholar,  and  man  of 
affairs,  at  the  dock  with  welcome  to  his  home  on 
the  Byculla  Club  road. 


97 


Chapter  VI 
THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

WHEN  one  lands  in  India  he  must  practically 
elect  the  section  over  which  he  will  travel 
and  what  he  will  choose  to  see.  More  important 
than  his  itinerary  are  the  auspices  under  which  he 
does  his  sightseeing.  He  can  stop  at  the  hotels, 
contrast  them  conversationally  with  those  he  has 
frequented  in  Canada  or  Mexico,  hear  the  opinions, 
wise  or  otherwise,  which  any  accomplished  and  ver- 
satile globe  trotter  fresh  from  his  morning's  "nip" 
at  the  bar  can  furnish  about  missions;  buy  some 
trinkets  on  the  hotel  veranda  and,  with  the  guide 
belonging  to  the  same  environment,  drive  in  a  car- 
riage about  the  parks  and  gardens.  That  is  the 
plan  of  the  majority  of  tourists  who  travel  by  the 
P.  &  O.  and  North  German  Lloyd,  and  represents 
the  travel  knowledge  of  the  Cleveland  passengers. 
Of  the  Salsette  tourists  fully  two-thirds  went,  on 
landing  at  Bombay,  to  a  hotel  munificently  adver- 
tised, whose  proprietor  and  house  physician  were  in 

98 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

court  on  having  conspired  to  conceal  four  cases  of 
cholera,  contrary  to  the  laws  made  and  provided; 
and  while  we  were  yet  in  Bombay  they  were  found 
guilty  and  a  fine  of  £200  was  assessed  against  them. 
It  is  all  but  certain  that  the  tourists  never  heard 
of  it  and  will  dispute  the  accuracy  of  this  state- 
ment, as  one  of  our  friends,  whom  we  met  eight 
hundred  miles  inland,  felt  called  upon  to  do.  He 
was  squelched  with  a  clipping  from  the  daily  pa- 
pers. Then  there  is  the  plan  of  keeping  aloof 
from  the  hotels,  living  with  the  missionaries,  going 
about  under  their  direction,  advising  with  them 
about  objects  of  human  interest,  learning  from 
them  the  people  who  are  worth  seeing,  hiring  your 
own  conveyances,  chaffering  in  the  bazaars  over 
your  small  purchases,  figuring  out  the  time  of  your 
own  trains,  and  penetrating  as  much  as  you  can 
into  the  life  of  the  gi'eat,  jostling  millions  who,  in- 
scrutable, hopeless,  and  fascinating,  go  forward  to 
their  judgment  day  and  doubtless  to  ours.  The 
papers  are  full  of  advertisements  and  give  complete 
accounts  of  the  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons ; 
but  we  bought  them  galore  at  four  annas  each 
(over  eight  cents),  trying  to  find  out  who  consti- 
tuted the  new  Cabinet  who  were  to  sit  with  Presi- 

99 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

dent  Wilson  and  divide  the  executive  responsibili- 
ties of  the  new  Administration,  but  save  that  Mr. 
Bryan  was  Secretary  of  State,  we  sought  and  looked 
in  vain.  In  Palestine  it  is  mountains,  flowers,  sky- 
line, and  the  high  thoughts  which  should  come  in 
high  places  that  attract,  but  India  is  of  breathless 
interest  because  of  the  customs,  barbarities,  caste, 
religion,  and  economic  conditions  of  the  crowds 
that  swarm  like  rabbits  in  a  warren.  The  hotel  at- 
mosphere is  as  remote  from  the  real  India  as  are 
the  antipodes.  The  great  Cook  may  well  be  pat- 
ronized by  people  who  take  their  holiday  by  travel 
instead  of  at  a  summer  or  winter  resort,  and  who 
are  temperamentally  fitted  for  it,  and  everywhere 
railway  and  steamship  tickets  may  well  be  pur- 
chased of  Cook.  But  men  who  wish  to  put  them- 
selves into  the  crucible  of  another  civilization,  that 
a  precipitate  of  charity,  energy,  and  serv^ice  may 
result;  who  wish  to  enlarge  themselves  beyond  the 
native  mold  and  environment  in  which  they  were 
cast,  will  find  the  conduct  of  tourist  agencies  and 
the  sendees  of  hotel  guides  practically  valueless. 
India,    of   all    countries,   is   the   most    difficult   to 

fathom;       „„  ,  .         ^       ^ 

"For  east  is  east,  and  west  is  west. 

And  never  the  twain  shall  meet," 
100 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

has  an  underlying  modicum  of  fact  that  makes  the 
hues  the  words  of  a  seer,  and  not  merely  a  quotable 
sentiment.  We  had  hotel  experience  at  Ahmende- 
bad,  Jaipur,  Agra,  and  Benares,  and  for  the  rest 
dwelt  among  "mine  own  people." 

There  are  many  beaten  paths  about  India ;  there 
is  one  taken  alwaj^s  by  merchants  and  men  in  a 
hun-y,  through  Jubbulpore,  and  by  the  mail  route 
between  Bombay  and  Calcutta.  We  followed  the 
great  circle,  via  Jaipur,  Delhi,  and  all  that  revel 
of  names  that  we  have  heard  at  Methodist  Con- 
ferences from  time  inmiemorial,  making  a  detour 
from  Allahabad  south  so  as  to  attend  the  Central 
Provinces  Conference  session  at  Jubbulpore,  and 
then  back  again  for  Benares  and  on  to  Calcutta, 
from  which,  as  a  point  of  departure,  we  visited  Dar- 
jeeling  for  the  view  of  the  Himalayas.  We  had 
five  weeks  for  India.  We  had  planned  for  less,  and 
only  an  important  Government  engagement  kept 
us  from  doubling  the  length  of  the  visit.  Only 
those  who  have  lived  in  India  will  know  how  short 
those  weeks  were,  and  the  heart-sorrow  when,  at 
Calcutta,  David  Lee,  a  name  imperishable  in  the 
missionary  annals  of  India,  at  once  apostle  and 
prophet,  saint  and  serv^ant,  waved  us  aboard  the 

101 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Ellenga.  It  is  the  land  of  heroism;  China,  too,  is 
full  of  heroes,  but  the  heroisms  of  China  are  part 
of  a  swift,  seething  movement  forward,  with  the 
workers  knowing  that  the  day  is  breaking  and  that 
deliverance  is  at  hand.  But  in  India  the  heroes 
have  part  in  a  flux  of  tilings  that  go  no  whither, 
and  where  events  are  not  discernibly  better.  Even 
the  glacier  movement  in  the  Swiss  mountains  may 
be  discerned,  and  here  and  there  on  some  great 
peak  the  break  and  scar  of  some  fissure  indicates 
that,  however  slowlj^,  the  glacier  has  already  begun 
to  move  down  the  valley  toward  the  river  and  the 
sea.  There  is  no  discernible  fissure  scar  in  India. 
It  must  be  better,  but  it  is  only  as  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury was  better  than  the  tenth  century  in  the  medi- 
aeval darkness,  because  it  was  a  century  farther  on. 
We  can  not  name  all  the  heroes  we  met,  nor  de- 
lineate their  heroisms.  The  categories  of  space 
and  time,  not  those  of  yearning  and  love,  keep  me 
silent.  Their  faces  and  voices,  their  homes  and 
their  high  emprise  rank  them  in  abiding  memory 
on  that  battlefield  of  unselfish  fame. 

We  have  already  named  Mr.  Bancroft.  He  ac- 
companied us  on  the  excursion  to  the  caves  of 
Elephanta,  where  we  learned  the  indescribable  in- 

102 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

decency  of  Hindoo  temples  and  worship  at  first 
hand;  showed  us  the  Bombay  market  at  sunrise, 
followed  with  me  a  Parsee  procession  to  the 
"Towers  of  Silence,"  arranged  a  brief  visit  to  Wil- 
son College,  and  to  the  industrial  school  he  has 
established  for  the  maintenance  of  his  high-caste 
converts;  five  services  we  attended  together  on  the 
Sunday  spent  in  his  diocese.  He  acted  as  my  in- 
terpreter at  the  Gujarat  sei'vice,  found  one  of  his 
native  helpers  to  do  likewise  for  the  Mahratti,  and 
on  his  porch  we  baptized  three  young  men,  whose 
story  reads  like  a  chapter  out  of  some  book  of  mar- 
tyrs. The  man  would  be  unique  in  any  Conference. 
He  believes  that  native  persistence  in  the  Christian 
life  requires  an  utter  break  with  heathenism  and 
the  support  of  the  converts  on  a  new  economic  basis. 
He  has  capitalized  out  of  his  small  salary  an  indus- 
trial school,  for  all  practical  plans  a  factory,  for 
making  mission  furniture.  Ten  men,  friends  of 
missions,  or  at  least  friends  of  opportunity,  ought 
to  give  him  $100  each,  so  that  he  could  purchase 
a  gas  engine,  saws,  planer,  sticker,  and  help  to 
perfect  a  little  plant  that  would  give  employment 
to  fifty  men  in  the  interim  of  losing  their  old 
livelihood  and  readjusting  themselves  to  Christian 

103 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

fellowship.  When  that  is  done,  a  steel  trunk  ad- 
dition, then  a  printery,  and  other  industries,  of 
the  highest  educational  value,  and  self-supporting 
from  the  very  beginning,  will  follow. 

Miss  Abbott  is  the  first  of  the  great  sisterhood, 
called  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society, 
we  met  in  India,  but  inseparably  associated  with 
her  are  Mrs.  F.  M.  Wilson,  Miss  Lawson,  Miss 
Poole,  and  Mrs.  Alma  Hearne  Holland,  the  gifts 
of  Iowa  Wesleyan  College  to  the  mission  enter- 
prises of  the  Church.  Miss  Abbott  had  shown  our 
daughter,  now  a  missionary's  wife,  through  some 
zenanas  a  year  prior  to  our  visit.  She  repeated 
the  courtesy  to  Mrs.  Schell,  who  compressed  the 
observations  of  the  India  tour  into  the  terse  truism 
that  "heathenism,  however  named,  is  one  vast  or- 
ganized crime  against  womanhood  and  childhood." 
It  has  been  our  privilege  to  attend  the  national 
gathering  of  the  P.  E.  O.  held  in  our  own  college 
chapel,  and  lead  a  pilgrimage  to  the  very  rooms 
where  it  was  initiated;  seven  hundred  queenly 
women,  teachers,  editors,  soloists,  home-makers, 
business-trained,  heart-trained,  handsomely  gowned, 
made  up  the  audience.  We  have  known  the  East- 
em  Star  in  communities  where  that  order  repre- 

104 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

sented  the  best  and  bravest  women  are,  and  attempt 
for  the  age  that  is  to  be;  our  daughters  have 
brought  into  our  home  knowledge  of  what  the 
Greek  sororities  cherish  as  ideals,  and  their  attempts 
to  approximate  it  in  heart  and  home;  and  without 
wish  to  disparage  or  minify  any  of  these  or  other 
sisterhoods,  in  our  judgment  the  women  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  take  the 
palm.  They  have  gone  out  from  homes  of  the 
tenderest  and  most  devoted  culture,  college-trained, 
and  with  a  devotion  and  sympathy  that  only  women 
could  show  have  set  themselves  at  the  task  of  re- 
generating the  women  of  all  lands  and  obtaining 
for  their  despised  sisters  of  Oriental  countries  the 
commonest  protection  and  decency  afforded  for 
women  in  America ;  following  the  example  of  Mary 
of  Bethany,  who  broke  the  alabaster  box  of  oint- 
ment very  precious  at  the  feet  of  Christ,  they  have 
brought  the  skill  of  Western  surgery,  the  teaching 
faculty  of  Occidental  countries,  and  the  deep  spir- 
itual insight  of  their  consuming  devotion,  and  with 
every  charm  and  all  the  winsomeness  of  engaging 
womanhood  have  put  these  talents  at  the  serv^ice  of 
their  poor,  sinned-against  and  sinning  sisters  of 
India. 

105 


IN   IH)UTS  AFAR 

All  our  mission  pr()j)irties  in  Bonibav  aro  hur- 
(icMU'd  with  debt.  'I'hcre  would  be  no  profit  in  lo- 
('atin<j^  the  responsibility  if  it  were  possible  so  to  do. 
The  wish  to  get  into  dialect  work,  the  dependence 
which  missionary  committees  at  liome  must  place 
on  the  estimates  for  old  and  new  work,  made  often 
by  inexperienced  men,  and  the  changing  personnel 
of  the  men  on  the  committees  to  whom  the  budgets 
arc  referred  in  New  York,  have  brought  about  in 
Bombay,  as  elsewhere,  an  acute  situation.  Face  to 
face  with  the  terrible  heathenism  of  that  city  our 
inunediate  appro})riations  are  exhausted  in  paying 
interest  and  reducing  the  indebtedness.  The  prop- 
erties the  Church  occupies  are  well  chosen  and  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  their  purpose,  but  interest  on 
the  debts  has  accumulated  to  the  point  that  makes 
ownership  at  Bombay — 

"Between  ttie  palm  and  the  sea, 
Where  the  world-end  steamers  wait," — 

In  our  judgment  a  question  of  name,  and  not  of 
fact.  Three-fourths  of  all  tourists  begin  their  trip 
across  India  at  Bombay,  and  a  large  part  of  the 
criticism  of  our  missionary'  enterprises  must  grow- 
out  of  a  situation  that  confronts  them  there,  for 

106 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

wliich  no  one  on  the  field  is  responsible  and  inherited 
from  good  knights  whose  swords  are  already  rust. 
There  is  no  fair  appropriation  for  native  workers 
on  any  district  in  India,  and  the  actual  work  of 
the  district  superintendents  is  at  such  long  range 
to  secure  funds  to  pay  the  native  helpers,  without 
whom  no  permjanent  progress  is  possible. 

The  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary'  Society  has 
an  unexampled  opportunity  to  open  a  college  for 
women  in  Bombay.  Good  administration  requires 
that  the  Parent  Board  confine  itself  to  work 
already  undertaken,  but  this  new  college  would 
serve  the  hundreds  of  Parsee  young  women,  and 
seems  like  the  beckoning  hand  of  Providence.  The 
women  only  can  do  it ;  it  is  to  them  the  invitation 
calls.  Given  housing  and  equipment,  like  Mr. 
Bancroft's  industrial  school,  it  would  be  more  than 
self-supporting  from  the  very  first,  would  render 
imperial  service  to  all  India,  be  a  permanent  con- 
tribution to  the  good  of  the  municipality,  and  mak- 
ing as  it  should  the  impression  produced  by  a  visit 
to  the  Isabella  Thobuni  College  at  Lucknow,  or 
to  Miss  Lawson's  school  at  Cawnpore,  would  radi- 
cally change  the  earliest  thought  tourists  get  of 
missionary  work  in  India. 

107 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

From  Bombay  to  Baroda  is  a  short  night's  ride. 
That  is  the  sphere  of  influence  assigned  to  Dr. 
Linzell,  whose  good  work  on  the  missionary  com- 
mittee in  the  last  General  Conference  will  long 
abide.  The  theological  school,  the  Nicholson  Me- 
morial, the  schools  and  hospital  of  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Misisonary  Society,  are  located  in  the  can- 
tonment, the  mile  square,  where  the  English  camp 
is  quartered.  Through  an  interpreter  we  spoke  to 
the  theologues.  The  attendance  is  less  than  at 
Bareilly.  One  could  not  fail  to  grow  thoughtful 
in  these  training  schools  where  the  future  ministry 
of  India  is  now  on  the  potter's  wheel.  The  courses 
are  simple,  and  yet  produce  prodigious  enlarge- 
ment to  the  minds  of  the  young  men  and  their 
wives;  for  all,  as  now  occurs  to  me,  were  married. 
They  are  making  the  men  who  shall  make  India. 
We  found  ourselves  wishing  that  a  few  simple 
courses  in  chemistry,  physics,  and  biology  might 
be  arranged.  Christianity  all  over  the  East  means 
the  English  language.  Western  science,  and  the 
practice  of  equality.  Baroda  and  Bareilly  mean 
to  India  what  Roberts  College  has  meant  to  the 
Balkan  States,  and  are  precursors  of  the  same  in- 
fluence which  the  Anglo-Chinese  schools  at  Penang 

108 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

and  Singapore  are  to-day  exercising  on  the  Repub- 
lic of  China. 

We  saw  the  Gaekwar's  palace,  with  the  solid  gold 
cannon  at  its  entrance,  the  tomb  in  the  streets, 
which  to  move  would  raise  a  rebellion,  scared  the 
monkeys  in  the  gardens,  greeted  the  missionaries 
in  Dr.  LinzelFs  home,  visited  the  hospital,  and  saw 
the  Gaekwar  riding  ^vith  an  escort.  He  is  the  most 
progressive  of  all  the  native  princes,  and  the  only 
one  that  is  an  actual  ruler  with  administrative 
influence  and  competency.  The  single  proof  of  his 
efficiency,  needed  to  satisfy  the  Western  world,  is 
that  many  of  his  subjects  go  to  the  English  can- 
tonment and  are  permitted  to  marry  there  under 
circumstances  that  would  prohibit  the  union  in  the 
Gaekwar's  territory.  The  Baroda  mission  is  a  fine 
example  of  the  influence  missionaries  exert  in  for- 
eign lands  upon  those  who  occupy  the  "seats  of  the 
mighty."  The  Gaekwar,  though  officially  follow- 
ing the  Hindoo  cult,  has  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary physician  for  the  women  of  his  family,  and 
applied  to  Dr.  Linzell  for  a  list  of  specifications  in 
attainment  and  rank  required  of  those  who  shall 
be  permitted  to  follow  the  office  of  "religious 
teacher."     The  mendicant  "fakirs"   have  aroused 

109 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

his  princely  wrath,  and  seem  to  him  evidently  to 
require  some  better  economic  basis  than  preying 
upon  the  superstitious  natures  of  his  people,  if  they 
are  to  continue  in  their  calling. 

We  missed  the  trade  school  at  Nardiad,  an  illus- 
tration and  forerunner  of  a  hundred  like  it  yet  to 
be  established.  It  is  a  type  of  the  best  avenue  of 
missionary  propaganda,  except  school  and  hospital, 
yet  followed.  Ahmendebad  is  architecturally  al- 
most as  interesting  as  wider-famed  Delhi  and  Agra. 
Jaipur  is  sui  generis.  Maharajah  is  the  title  of 
its  nominal  ruler.  He  is  one  of  the  potentates  w^io 
survive  in  name,  but  have  no  vital  place  in  the  con- 
duct of  affairs.  There  is  a  difference  in  the  titles 
of  rajah,  maharajah,  begum,  nawab,  gaekwar, 
king,  emperor,  and  Lord  This  and  Lord  That,  but 
to  delimit  exactly  the  frontier  of  their  original  and 
imported  meanings,  except  at  Baroda,  is  a  work 
of  supererogation.  The  Gaekwar  rules  in  Baroda, 
except  in  the  cantonment ;  everywhere  else  the  Eng- 
lish resident  is  the  government  de  facto.  So  much 
for  the  Maharajah  of  Jaipur,  who  has  two  palaces 
within  the  walls  of  the  city  and  a  third  at  Amber. 
Admission  to  the  palaces  can  be  obtained  only  by 
a  permit  issued  by  Colonel  Bailey,  the  resident.    He 

110 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

has  made  a  requirement  that  tourists  shall  apply 
for  admission  after  they  reach  Jaipur,  a  rule 
founded  on  courtesy  and  good  form.  The  day  is 
really  necessary  to  make  arrangements  for  their 
reception  at  the  city  palace  and  provide  elephants 
to  transport  the  party  to  Amber,  a  distance  of  five 
miles  beyond  the  walls,  and  its  approach  not  per- 
missible save  by  bullock  cart  or  elephant.  A  party 
of  eight  English  gentlemen  and  their  wives  had  to 
stay  for  the  second  day,  but  my  card  and  a  brief 
explanation  to  the  colonel's  aide  of  my  Government 
errand  to  the  Philippines  brought  us,  in  addition  to 
a  personal  interview  with  the  resident,  the  coveted 
cards.  We  had  a  pleasant  sojourn  in  the  palace, 
to  which  public  admission  is  given  in  the  city 
proper,  saw  the  tigers  in  the  cages  which  adjoin 
the  business  section,  and  heard  them  roar,  which 
a  tip  to  the  attendant  will  occasion;  did  all  kinds 
of  shopping,  and  have  regretted  ever  since  that  we 
did  not  buy  more  of  the  gewgaws  for  sale  there 
rather  than  less.  To  tliis  was  added  the  ride  to 
Amber,  where  we  wandered  from  room  to  room,  no- 
ticing the  gorgeous  fittings  with  which  the  ancient 
kingly  state  was  set  about,  and  the  pains  taken  by 
baths,  gardens,  jewels,  and  finery  to  reconcile  the 

111 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

queen  favorite  to  her  loneliness  and  solitude.  The 
lofty  elevation,  naturally  impregnable,  on  which 
the  palace  is  built,  the  wildness  approximating 
jungle  on  the  very  edge  of  which  the  palace  stands, 
and  where  tigers  still  nightly  issue  forth,  if  the 
word  of  the  guides  may  be  believed,  and  the  en- 
forced labor  and  skill  necessary  to  build  such  a 
structure  makes  a  forcible  introduction  to  the  Shah 
Jehan  period  of  Indian  civilization  and  govern- 
ment. 

Delhi,  now  the  official  residence  of  the  viceroy, 
except  during  the  heated  term,  when  the  capital  is 
at  Simla,  would  need  a  volume  to  describe.  Frank 
M.  Wilson,  superintendent  of  the  Delhi  District, 
one  of  the  great  missionaries  of  modern  times,  met 
us  at  the  depot.  On  his  advice  we  discarded,  as  a 
means  of  conveyance,  camels  which  we  had  ridden 
to  the  pyramids,  the  donkeys  which  had  conveyed 
us  about  Jerusalem,  and  the  elephant  for  the  ride 
to  Amber,  and  embarked  upon  a  Fierce-Arrow;  we 
were  whisked  about  the  fort  walls,  tombs,  and  pal- 
aces, finishing  our  outward-bound  ride  at  the  Kutab 
Minar,  and  returning  by  the  old  observatory, 
speaking  to  this  generation  the  scientific  attain- 
ments  of   the    Mohammedan   invaders.      We    saw 

112 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

where  stood  the  peacock  throne,  read  the  tablets  at 
the  gate  which  commemorates  the  valor  of  those 
who  perished  to  breach  it  in  the  wild  days  of  the 
mutiny,  were  shown  the  window  from  which  the 
bomb  attempting  the  life  of  the  Viceroy  was  thrown, 
rode  to  the  site  of  the  Durbar,  which  celebrated 
the  accession  of  George  V,  and  to  other  memorials 
of  valor  and  honor  which  the  city  contains. 

The  Methodist  work  in  Delhi  is  limited  to  the 
native  dialect ;  the  Baptists  have  a  strong  following 
and  an  English  congregation.  The  commission 
appointed  to  report  the  condition  of  the  India  Sun- 
day schools  to  the  International  Convention  at 
Zurich  were  in  Delhi  the  Sunday  we  spent  there, 
and  after  preaching  through  Brother  Wilson  as  an 
interpreter,  we  were  privileged  to  attend  the  long 
interview  he  gave  a  member  of  the  commission  on 
the  "mass"  movement  in  his  district,  and  heard  the 
sermon  in  the  Baptist  church  in  the  quiet  of  the 
evening  hour. 

But  the  real  India  is  not  to  be  found  in  Bombay, 
Delhi,  Lucknow,  or  Calcutta,  nor  in  anything  they 
offer  by  way  of  sight  or  suggestion.  There  are 
six  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand  villages,  av- 
eraging approximately  five  hundred  people  each, 
8  113 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

that  make  up  the  real  India.  They  are  isolated, 
practically  impenetrable,  except  where  the  govern- 
ment has  built  roads,  and  dak  bungalows,  essentially 
represent  the  villages  of  Palestine  at  the  time  of 
Christ,  and  remain  the  oldest  illustration  of  what 
the  world  was  at  the  dawnings  of  civilization. 
Century  after  century  the  dead  level  of  their  hun- 
ger, swinishness,  bestiality,  and  caste  has  continued. 
You  see  occasional  villages  from  the  car  windows, 
and  to  one  of  them  at  least  every  traveler  who  would 
wish  to  say  that  he  has  seen  India  must  go.  The 
Wilsons  planned  our  excursion  for  us.  They  took 
their  serv^ants,  dishes,  bedding — ours  also  (for 
every  traveler  in  India  carries,  as  in  Christ's  day 
in  Palestine,  his  bed) — and  food;  loaded  us  into  a 
train,  which  pulled  out  of  Delhi  parallel  to  the 
great  road  over  which  Alexander  and  his  invading 
phalanx  marched  three  hundred  years  before  the 
Cross  was  set  up.  We  alighted  at  an  unpronounce- 
able station,  spelled  Behadighar,  where  tongas 
were  in  readiness  to  carry  us  three  and  one-half 
miles  down  a  macadam  road  built  by  the  govern- 
ment to  a  dak  bungalow,  erected  also  by  the  Eng- 
lish to  accommodate  the  army  officers  and  the 
health  and  civil  service  employees,  whose  duties  may 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

call  them  to  the  district.  Without  these  roads  and 
bungalows  any  supervision  of  the  villages  would 
be  impossible.  It  is  scant  enough  with  them,  and 
yet  is  the  beginning  of  law  and  authority.  The 
bungalows  are  divided  into  kitchen,  sitting  and 
sleeping  rooms  which  are  fitted  up  with  cots,  and 
a  charge  of  sixteen  cents  per  person  is  made,  but 
they  are  free  to  missionaries  if  not  occupied  at  their 
coming. 

Then  for  another  four  miles  we  rode  on  an  ekka, 
and  then  off  the  main  road  for  three-fourths  of  a 
mile  to  the  village  of  Tikri,  where  for  two  years 
a  company  of  faithful  souls  of  the  "sweeper  caste," 
knowing  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  had  yearned, 
hoped,  and  waited  for  baptism.  They  came  run- 
ning together  at  our  approach.  Brother  Wilson 
preached,  exhorted,  interrogated;  Mrs.  Wilson 
sang,  talked  to  the  women,  taught  the  children  the 
Commandments,  and  examined  the  necks  and 
breasts  of  the  poor,  wild  things  for  charms  against 
evil  spirits  w^hich  they  are  prone  to  cling  to,  and  a 
few  demurred  at  surrendering.  We  have  in  our 
keepsakes  several  of  these  poverty-stricken  memen- 
tos of  that  day.     Then  Brother  Wilson  went  into 

115 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

every  little  mud  hovel  they  call  a  house,  to  be  cer- 
tain that  no  shrines  were  still  kept ;  and  then  a 
long  interview  was  held  with  the  chaudrais  (the 
slight  semblance  of  governing  that  the  mahullah, 
or  ward,  affords)  concerning  a  big  shrine  standing 
nearby  in  the  street.  Certain  high-caste  men  cer- 
tified that  it  belonged  to  the  whole  village  and  could 
not  be  torn  down.  Meanwhile  the  day  waned,  and 
then,  after  more  preaching  and  prayers,  and  re- 
newed questioning  as  to  the  spiritual  meaning  of 
baptism,  by  families  they  knelt  down  and  received 
the  ordinances.  The  chaudrais  cut  off  every  chutia, 
the  long  lock  which  several  of  the  men  had  retained 
as  the  lingering  heathenish  practice;  the  men 
seemed  to  me  to  knit  into  courage  and  capacity  by 
the  rite;  the  women  trembled  at  our  hands.  Once, 
after  a  great  ingathering,  we  baptized  sixty-four 
on  a  single  Sabbath  morning ;  at  Tikri  seventy-two 
witnessed  in  the  Spirit  we  trust  by  water.  Some  few 
were  Chemars,  a  caste  slightly  higher  than  the 
sweepers,  and  probably  another  fifty  were  in  the 
fields,  and  yet  lament  their  enforced  absence  on 
that  memorable  day.  A  throng  of  high-caste  men 
stood  about  wondering,  doubtless,  what  the  strange 
occasion   foreshadowed   to   those   baptized,   to  the 

116 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

village,  and  to  themselves  and  their  ancient  privi- 
leges— nothing,  probably,  they  decided,  as  pride 
and  privilege  are  everywhere  dull  to  the  portents 
of  coming  change.  A  collection  followed — some 
poor,  shriveled,  brass  coins;  some  eggs,  a  diminu- 
tive chicken,  about  the  size  of  a  good,  plump  quail ; 
in  total  perhaps  two  rupees.  Then,  as  night  drew  on 
apace,  a  crowd  of  children  and  youth  accompanied 
us  to  the  high  road,  bade  us  good-bye,  and  our  last 
memorv  is  of  their  sweet  salaams  and  the  chorus  of 
the  hymns  which  followed  us  down  the  pike  like  the 
voice  of  waters,  and  which  rise  now  in  our  souls 
when  an  organ  swells  and  a  choir  sings.  The  chil- 
dren looked  out  of  their  eyes  as  though  the}^  were 
from  the  Mt.  Pleasant  schools  and  homes.  It  was 
pitch-dark  and  pouring  rain  before  we  reached  the 
bungalow,  and  on  account  of  rain  we  could  not  go 
the  next  day  to  two  other  villages.  The  Viceroy  of 
India,  Lord  Hardinge,  whom  we  saw  alight  from 
his  official  train  on  our  return  to  Delhi,  on  his  first 
public  appearance  after  the  dreadful  attempt  upon 
his  life,  and  the  sepoys,  who  in  feathers  and  regi- 
mental panoply  guarded  his  progress,  looked  com- 
monplace by  comparison  with  the  eager  faces  of  the 
Tikri  children  and  youth. 

117 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Bishop  Warne,  equal  of  any  man  since  apostolic 
times  in  labors  and  consecration,  whose  guests  we 
were  at  Lucknow,  told  me  in  the  gathering  twilight, 
seated  in  his  own  home,  of  going  to  a  like  village; 
they  yearned  for  baptism ;  five  villagers  had  pre- 
viously, because  of  baptism,  been  denied  water  from 
the  public  well  and  had  died  of  thirst.  The  bishop 
and  district  superintendent  canvassed  the  situation 
and  decided  that  it  was  better  for  the  villagers  not 
to  baptize  them.  The  decision  caused  great  sorrow 
and  disappointment.  Then,  with  tears  running 
down  his  face,  the  bishop  told  me  how  eight  of  them 
followed  him  dowm  the  road  twelve  miles,  waiting 
while  he  slept,  and  appeared  at  early  morning  at 
the  depot  as  he  was  leaving  the  district,  and  again 
asked  him  that  he  would  seal  their  faith  and  com- 
mission them  even  for  death  by  baptism.  What 
would  you  do?  There  are  ten  thousand  on  the 
Delhi  District  alone  waiting  now  these  two  years. 
The  fact  of  baptism  works  like  iron  in  their  blood, 
and  they  deem  it  consent  to  their  equality  with  the 
strange  sahibs  who  come  from  beyond  the  wall  at 
the  end  of  the  world.  It  helps  them  in  industry, 
gives  them  hope,  and  is  like  some  great  charter, 
some  declaration  of  independence  to  the  individuals, 

118 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— I 

the  caste,  and  the  village.  The  missionary  commit- 
tee ought  to  add  ten  thousand  dollars  each  to  the 
appropriations  of  the  North  and  Northwest  India 
Conferences  this  year,  and  thus  call  upon  the 
Church  to  meet  this  wild  surge  toward  Christianity. 


119 


Chapter  VII 

THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

fTlHE  fort  on  the  banks  of  the  Jumna,  with  the 
-■■  marble  mosque  and  the  Taj  Mahal,  took  us  to 
Agra.  Morning,  noon,  and  at  sunset  we  viewed 
the  shapely,  graceful  structure  of  the  Taj  Mahal, 
approached  by  curving  roads,  of  delicate  beauty, 
mirrored  in  the  limpid  lake  constructed  to  reflect  it, 
and  inferior,  in  the  opinion  of  impartial  judges, 
only  to  the  Parthenon.  The  guide-books  will  tell 
you  all  about  it,  and  inform  you  of  the  wonderful 
lamp  with  which  Lord  Curzon,  the  titled  husband 
of  an  American  woman,  enriched  the  interior  dig- 
nity. The  final  imprisomnent  of  Shah  Jehan  by 
his  son  excites  us  to  Latin,  ^'Sic  gloria  transitJ'* 
We  took  a  guide  at  the  Cawnpore  depot,  which  we 
reached  at  an  early  hour,  for  a  drive  to  Wheeler's 
Intrenchment,  the  Massacre  Ghat,  and  the  Memo- 
rial Well.  This  latter  is  worth  any  discomfort  of 
travel  by  sea  or  land  to  look  upon;  not  for  the 
heavenly-carved  angel,  nor  for  the  sublime  scroll 

120 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

bearing  the  words,  "These  are  thej  who  came  out 
of  great  tribulation,"  nor  the  surrounding  park, 
all  the  gift  of  Victoria  Regina,  but  for  that  mo- 
ment at  the  entrance.  We  rode  up  and  climbed 
out  of  the  carriage  to  be  saluted  at  the  moment 
by  an  English  soldier,  plume  in  his  cap,  red  coat, 
and  white  gloves.  The  guide  says,  sotto  voce^  "Na- 
tive guides  are  not  permitted  to  enter  the  gardens," 
and  directed  us  to  the  Memorial.  Again  the  soldier 
saluted,  and  resumed  his  guard.  That  is  the  superb 
punishment  good  old  England  has  visited  upon  the 
native  peoples  of  India  for  now  fifty-seven  years, 
and  is  likely  to  continue  for  a  century  longer.  It  is 
a  continual  reproach  for  their  broken  faith.  They 
promised  safe  conduct  for  six  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  women  and  children  from  the  intrenchment  to 
Allahabad.  With  the  indescribable  deviltry  and 
treachery  of  heathenism,  they  escorted  them  to  the 
ghat  at  the  bank  of  the  river,  where  they  were  to 
embark,  and  after  some  were  aboard,  shot  them  all 
down.  Only  one  escaped.  For  this  act  of  treach- 
ery against  women  and  children,  exclusion  from  the 
gardens  and  the  memorial  have  been  enforced  upon 
the  Indians  ever  since  the  mutiny.  Once  an  order 
in  council  permitted  the  North  India  Conference, 

121 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

many  members  of  which  are  natives,  to  visit  the 
memorial  in  a  body,  and  around  that  white  marble- 
rimmed  sepulcher  they  knelt,  while  one  of  the  mem- 
bers, who  as  a  boy  had  seen  the  terrible  slaughter, 
led  in  prayer.  We  asked  the  native  guide  for  the 
Methodist  mission,  and  were  told  that  it  was  five 
miles  away.  With  the  engagements  ahead  we  had 
not  time  for  such  a  drive,  but  we  were  then  only 
a  few  short  blocks  from  Miss  Lawson's  school,  the 
object  of  our  quest.  Had  we  known  the  wise  ways 
of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  or 
been  in  the  company  of  an  English  guide,  we 
should  not  have  missed  it.  One  of  the  sisterhood 
had  just  died  of  smallpox,  and  sympathy  required 
the  call.  Miss  Lawson,  second  of  all  that  wonder- 
ful organization,  went  to  India  to  begin  women's 
work  for  women ;  what  Jane  Addams  is  to  Chicago, 
Anna  Lawson  is  to  Cawnpore.  The  hundred  things 
we  saw  that  we  did  not  plan  to  see,  do  not  make 
up  for  this  which  for  months  we  had  planned,  and 
through  reliance  on  a  native  guide  missed.  Happy 
the  school  that  takes  its  name  from  so  radiant  a 
personality,  and  woe  to  us  so  steeped  in  denomina- 
tional colloquialisms  as  to  lose  sight  of  the  one  by 
practice  of  the  other. 

122 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

There  are  two  occasions  of  a  journey  to  Luck- 
now  ;  one  is  the  bishop,  who  took  us  to  his  home, 
opened  for  hours  God's  way  with  him  in  that  far 
land,  and  speeded  us  on  our  way  with  rejoicing. 
The  other  is  B.  T.  Badley,  secretary  of  the  Ep- 
worth  League  for  India,  bom  and  reared  adjacent 
to  his  present  residence,  inheriting  a  name  honored 
in  mission  annals,  educated  in  America,  with  the 
English  pride  of  race  and  achievement,  and  incar- 
nating in  himself  the  youth  of  the  world  he  repre- 
sents. The  bishop  and  the  secretary  took  us  to 
Reid  Christian  College  and  showed  us  over  the 
residency,  scene  of  the  greatest  heroism  the  great 
annals  of  great  England  show.  In  boyhood  we 
had  read  the  authoritative  book  on  the  mutinv,  and 
the  secretary's  library  yielded  the  precious  volume. 
Like  a  new  tale  of  old  adventure  the  story  came 
back :  the  land  denuded  of  Englishmen ;  the  changes 
in  provincial  administration,  especially  in  Oudh; 
the  conspiracy  of  degenerate  princes ;  the  misplaced 
faith  of  the  English  officers  in  the  sepoys,  taken 
unawares  at  church ;  the  unfathomable  hatred  of 
the  ]Mussulmen ;  the  march  of  the  regiments  in  full 
uniform  toward  Cawnpore  under  that  burning  sky ; 
the  wild  trumpetings  of  the  elephants ;  the  disorder 

US 


,K 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

they  caused  in  the  artillery ;  the  escape  from  the 
flank  movement;  the  hurried  retreat;  the  energy 
and  efficiency  with  which  almost  in  a  day  Lawrence 
transformed  that  big  front  dooryard  into  an  im- 
pregnable fortress ;  the  lone  three  thousand  sur- 
rounded there  by  fifty  thousand  sepoys  with  Eng- 
lish rifles,  having  been  taught  their  use  by  English 
drill  sergeants,  and  another  hundred  thousand  sym- 
pathetic natives  armed  with  hate  and  the  spur  of 
plunder  to  feed,  spy  for,  and  encourage  them, — all 
these  and  fifty  other  details  crowded  down  the  cor- 
ridors of  memory. 

And  now,  in  company  with  the  bishop  and  the 
secretary,  we  visited  the  actual  scene;  saw  for  our- 
selves where  the  sandbags  were  piled,  the  artillery 
stationed,  where  the  assaults  were  made ;  went  into 
the  old  church  from  which  finally  retreat  was  made, 
and  down  into  tlie  cellars  where  the  women  and 
children  were  huddled,  swarmed  upon  by  flies, 
dying  of  typhoid;  and  where  Jenny,  the  Scotch 
maid,  cried  out,  "Oh!  dinna  ye  hear  the  slogan 
far  awa'?"  Then,  after  two  hours,  we  went  to 
the  cemetery,  where  since  King  George's  coronation 
they  put  flowers  every  day  on  the  tomb  of  Law- 
rence, and  read  on  the  simple  slab: 

124 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

"Here  lies 

Henry  Lawrence, 

Who  tried  to   do  his  duty. 

May  God  have  mercy  on  his  soul !" 

In  Westminster  Abbey,  along  with  England's 
great  sons,  by  reason  of  birth  or  favoritism,  many 
mediocrities  have  obtained  sepulture,  but  in  the 
"acre"  of  the  residency  only  heroes  sleep.  Every 
name  is  immortal,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  from 
many  lands  they  bring  back  for  burial  with  com- 
rades those  who  kept  the  banner  of  England  float- 
ing there.  Those  hours  were  sacramental,  and  long 
into  the  night,  when  bishop  and  secretary  were 
asleep,  we  read  the  book,  rejoiced  that  such  as 
thev  were  at  the  helm  in  that  dark  land,  and  felt 
the  glor}'  in  our  souls  that  of  that  noble  three  thou- 
sand, nine  hundred  and  ninet3'-two  came  through. 
It  helps  to  "Assert  eternal  Providence,  and  justify 
the  ways  of  God  with  men." 

The  Isabella  Thoburn  College  for  women  and 
the  Lucknow  College  for  men  illustrate  the  final 
reliance  that  Christianity  must  put  upon  the  slow 
processes  of  education  and  the  enlargement  of  mind 
and  spirit.     Two  of  Bishop  Robinson's  daughters 

125 


r\ 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

have  large  responsibilities  at  Thoburn  College,  and 
that  institution  is  worth  a  chapter  in  the  expanding 
roll  of  faith  begun  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
After  breakfast  with  the  women  we  spoke  in  chapel 
on  the  superiority  of  Christianity  to  Mohammed- 
anism, with  a  dozen  young  women  of  Islamic  birth 
listening  attentively.  Most  of  them  have  already 
discarded  the  veil,  and  study,  dine,  and  recite  with 
the  regular  classes.  Like  the  leaping  fires  from  the 
scaur  of  Lemnos  to  the  watching  roof  in  Ithaca 
to  indicate  that  Troy  had  fallen,  those  two  schools 
in  Lucknow  flash  the  story  of  coming  dawn  on  the 
Hindoo  hills. 

From  Lucknow,  through  Allahabad,  junction  of 
the  Jumna  and  Ganges,  with  time  only  for  a  brief 
survey  of  that  important  center,  we  rushed  for 
Jubbulpore,  so  as  to  attend  the  Conference  of  the 
Central  Provinces,  in  session  there  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Bishop  John  W.  Robinson.  It  had  for 
us  all  the  strange  attraction  of  my  first  Conference, 
when  Bishop  Harris  presided,  Dr.  Fowler  spoke  for 
missions,  and  preached  in  the  opera  house  on  Sun- 
day afternoon;  when  Hartzell,  of  the  Freedmen's 
Aid;  William  Taylor,  Bishop  of  Africa  to  be,  and 
McCabe,  of  the  Church  Extension  Society,  stirred 

126 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

my  slow  pulses  by  their  eloquence  and  fervor.  At 
Jubbulpore  five  graduates  of  Iowa  Wesleyan  are 
at  work.  The  Abbotts,  husband  and  wife ;  Brother 
Hermann,  treasurer  of  the  mission  and  head  of  the 
theological  school ;  Mrs.  Holland,  Miss  Poole,  all 
cherish  the  blessed  alma  mater;  and,  gathered  at 
one  table,  we  sang  the  songs,  gave  the  cheers,  and 
once  the  bishop,  who  is  from  Iowa,  joined  us  in 
the  "yell."  We  lectured,  preached  the  Conference 
sermon,  led  the  devotions,  spoke  to  the  theological 
students,  and  had  the  honor  (for  so  it  is  counted) 
of  going  to  the  barracks  and  addressing  the  sol- 
diers quartered  there.  We  were  guests  at  Mrs. 
Heame's  "Yellow  House,"  where  all  the  Conference 
breakfasted,  lunched,  and  dined  together;  called 
at  the  home  of  the  Abbotts  and  Hermanns,  and  at 
Miss  Poole's  invitation  rode  in  a  bullock  cart  to 
the  Madan  Mahal,  some  three  miles  from  the  Yel- 
low House.  We  started  at  7.15  o'clock  in  the  fore- 
noon, and  reached  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Societ}'^  school  in  time  for  breakfast  at  12.30 
P.  M.  Time,  five  hours ;  distance,  six  miles.  But 
the  rate  was  less  than  might  be  calculated,  as  the 
last  half  mile  was  covered  on  foot,  and  Mrs.  Schell 
and  Miss  Poole  spoke  to  a  Brahmin  vowed  to  silence, 

127 


\ 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

who  displayed  himself  in  a  red  gown,  and  thus 
errors  of  speculation  are  imported  into  the  mathe- 
matics of  the  journey.  The  invitation,  the  genial 
company,  and  the  wide  view  were  probably  in- 
separable from  the  means  of  conveyance.  But, 
then,  it  is  good  to  learn  how  the  tide  of  life  plodded 
forward  in  "our  grandfathers'  days."  Wherever 
the  graduates  of  a  college  gather  and  speak  lov- 
ingly of  its  Faculty,  its  history  and  hope,  there  is 
the  college.  So  Iowa  Wesleyan  belongs  to  India. 
It  recruits  the  membership  of  many  Conferences 
at  home,  and  at  the  same  time  gives  two  strong 
men  and  six  remarkable  women  to  the  India  for- 
eign field.  Sons  and  daughters  such  as  they  for- 
ever praise  her  in  the  gates,  and  more  than  justify 
every  dollar  given  to  the  equipment  and  endowment 
of  the  institution. 

The  "mail"  on  all  the  India  railroads  is  a  fast 
train,  making  almost  double  the  speed  of  the  "ex- 
press" and  carrying  only  first  and  second  class 
passengers.  Baggage  on  the  Indian  railways  must 
be  checked  at  the  depots  from  which  the  tickets 
are  purchased.  It  happened  that  at  Bombay,  hav- 
ing bought  our  ticket  from  one  station,  and  finding 
it  more  convenient  to  leave  from  another,  the  bag- 

128 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

gageman  would  not  check  our  tininks,  and  so 
trunks,  bedding-roll,  handbags,  and  suit-cases  were 
taken  into  the  compartments  all  over  India. 
Steamer  trunks  such  as  ours  were  all  shoved  under 
the  seat,  upon  which  you  make  up  your  bed  for  the 
night's  ride.  We  had  a  compartment  to  ourselves 
on  the  "mail"  from  Jubbulpore  to  ^loghal  Serai, 
the  main  line  station  for  Benares.  We  were  early 
at  the  bathing  ghats.  It  was  a  feast  day,  which 
brought  out  an  unusual  crowd,  and  various  person- 
ages estimated  that  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
people  bathed  in  the  Ganges  that  morning.  Some 
of  the  most  dreadfully  indecent  temples  in  India 
are  adjacent  to  the  Ganges  at  Benares,  and  on  that 
moraing  they  were  crowded.  A  heap  of  bodies 
to  be  burned  later  that  morning  recall  Edwin  Ar- 
nold's lines: 

"For  all  the  tears  of  all  the  eyes 
Have  room   in  Gunga's   bed, 
And  all  the  sorrow  is  gone  to-morrow, 
When  the  white  flames  have  fed:" 

the  thousands  wading  into  the  water,  scooping  it 
in  their  hands  and  swallowing  the  filthy  stuff ;  other 
thousands  polishing  their  brass  water-jars,  mean- 
while occasional  carcasses  of  dead  animals,  festering 
9  129 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

and  bloated,  drifting  down  the  river,  and  the  hun- 
dreds of  boats,  with  upper  decks  for  sightseers, 
made  such  a  scene  as  is  not  obtainable  anywhere 
else  on  the  planet,  and  which  few  would  care  to  see 
again.  The  Monkey  Temple  is  as  despicable, 
filthy,  and  vile  as  the  Kalighat  at  Calcutta,  though 
both  white  and  black  goats  are  offered  at  Benares. 
It  was  after  such  a  day  as  this  that  Bishop  ]\Ic- 
Dowell  is  reported  to  have  said  to  Mrs.  McDowell, 
president  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety: "After  this  we  shall  never  have  another 
happy  day."  The  indecencies  of  the  temples,  the 
open  loathesomeness  of  heathenism,  and  the  igno- 
rance, superstition,  and  fanaticism  of  the  surging 
throngs  gave  me  a  depression  from  which  it  took 
me  weeks  to  recover.  Benares  ought  to  be  labeled 
like  the  gates  of  Dante's  "Inferno," 

"All   hope   abandon,   ye,   who   enter   here." 

After  the  tour  of  Benares,  the  human  body  we  saw 
drifting  with  the  tide  in  the  river  at  Calcutta, 
shoved  off  from  some  burning  ghat  in  the  absence 
of  the  mourners,  so  as  to  save  the  fuel  for  its  in- 
cineration, was  rather  less  shocking. 

The  "mail"  whisked  us  from  Benares  to  Calcutta 

130 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

in  fifteen  hours.  A  high-caste  Hindoo  shared  the 
compartment  with  us  for  some  hours.  He  had 
been  educated  at  Cambridge,  spoke  excellent  Eng- 
lish, and  was  as  much  interested  in  America  as  we 
were  in  India.  We  discoursed  together  about  Be- 
nares, and  he  expressed  great  interest  in  the  at- 
tempts of  the  Brahm-Somaj  to  refonn  Hfndooism. 
As  in  our  conversation  we  tended  toward  mutual 
frankness  we  put  to  him  the  statement  of  the 
hadji  that  Western  science  had  put  the  war  ma- 
terials into  the  hands  of  the  Christian  powers.  Evi- 
dently he  had  often  discussed  the  proposition  be- 
fore, for  he  quietly  replied  that  it  was  "not  the  mili- 
tary power  of  the  Occident  that  was  to  be  feared, 
but  the  efficiency  of  the  Western  s^^llogism."  The 
Hindoo  is  addicted  to  what  he  labels  "absolute 
thought,"  and  bases  his  syllogism  on  some  affirma- 
tion having  general  acceptance,  or  on  some  specu- 
lation credited  to  a  "deity"  or  "divinity."  The 
Occidentalist  long  examines  his  basic  statement  by 
observation  before  he  risks  an  induction  from  it. 
This  is  what  the  Hindoo  meant  by  his  phrase,  the 
"efficiency  of  syllogism."  This  habit  of  mind  is 
the  only  corrective  for  superstition  abroad  or  at 
home,  and  our  faith,  whether  hay,  w^ood,  stubble, 

131 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

or  gold,  is  tried  as  by  its  fire,  and  the  days  shall 
declare  of  what  sort  it  is.  If  universal  experience 
could  be  accumulated  and  tabulated,  it  would  settle 
the  matter;  but  we  lack  the  proper  powers  to  so 
accumulate  and  tabulate.  So  long  as  Dalton,  be- 
cause he  is  color-blind,  declares  there  are  only  two 
primary  colors  in  the  spectiTim,  all  he  is  able  to 
see,  and  Sir  William  Herschel  says  there  are  three, 
because  he  can  see  them,  third  parties  interrogate 
our  powers  of  observation.  At  any  rate  it  is  cer- 
tain we  exercise  these  powers,  if  we  possess  them, 
under  limitations  that  make  them  practically  value- 
less, and  we  must  remain  hesitant  about  the  basis 
of  our  syllogism,  which  it  most  concerns  us  to  know. 
But  it  is  not  quite  so  serious  as  it  appears,  for  it 
is  heart,  and  not  thought,  that  furnishes  the  dy- 
namics of  life. 

It  seemed  like  the  coming  of  some  longed-for 
Sabbath  to  a  weary  laborer  to  reach  the  Lee  Me- 
morial Home,  Wellington  Square,  Calcutta ;  great 
it  was  to  meet  David  Lee,  beloved  in  the  gospel ! 
to  sit  at  their  board,  kneel  with  them  in  their 
family  devotions,  and  ride  about  with  them,  to  find 
the  spot  of  the  Black  Hole  tragedy,  and  in  their 
company  to  see  the  Heber  ^lemorial,  the  frown- 

132 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

ing  fortifications,  the  botanical  gardens,  with  its 
rare  orchids  and  famous  banyan  tree,  and  watch 
the  gyrations  of  the  diiim  major  in  the  Black 
Watch  regiment  band,  as  they  gave  concerts  in  the 
esplanade.  One  boy  was  left  to  them,  a  bab}^  in 
his  mother's  arms  at  the  time  of  the  Darjeeling  dis- 
aster, which  in  an  hour  left  the  Lees  desolate  and 
enriched  that  heathen  city  with  the  Lee  Memorial 
Home.  Another  son  has  since  come  to  heal  their 
loneliness.  On  our  part  we  renewed  a  fellowship 
exceedingly  precious,  which  time  can  not  sunder. 
We  pressed  northward  so  as  to  spend  the  Sab- 
bath in  Darjeeling.  In  the  manse  of  the  Union 
Church,  Rev.  Joseph  Culshaw,  editor  of  the  Ijidiu 
Witness,  greeted  us,  took  us  to  the  government 
house,  introduced  us  to  the  civil  dignitaries  already 
arriving  to  spend  the  hot  months  in  that  famous 
mountain  resort,  pointed  out  the  path  of  that  cloud- 
burst that  carried  the  Lee  family  away,  and  in  the 
school  with  ]\Iiss  Knowles  and  in  the  church  on 
Sunday  we  felt  that  kindling  of  faith  and  friend- 
ship, and  found  the  sure  medicant  far  the  souls 
of  those  who  have  looked  over  the  wall  into  per- 
dition and  staggered  back  on  heaven's  side.  All 
mountain  heights  are  difficult  of  ascent,  but  once 

133 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

ascended,  unless  storms  intervene,  the  sight  is  glo- 
rious. At  Darjeeling  we  looked  up  to  the  roof  of 
the  world.  For  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  the 
massive  Himalayas  unrolled  their  splendors  before 
our  mortal  eyes,  flashing  back  with  their  white 
bosoms  the  glory  of  the  Eternal.  The  yawning 
abysses  beneath  filled  with  clouds  seemed  to  roll 
and  swell  like  some  vast  sea,  and  the  pure,  impec- 
cable, snowy  vastness  of  Kinchin junga  was  de- 
clarative of  holiness  and  God.  Up  on  a  windswept 
height  we  plucked  a  prayer  which  some  poor  soul, 
feeling  after  God,  had  tied  to  a  tree,  and,  folding 
it  with  some  flowers  from  Gethsemane,  we  shall  keep 
it  as  a  mute  witness  that  once  we  brought  the  prayer 
of  a  sorrowing  heart  to  Him  who  sorrowed  there. 

The  Darjeeling  tea  plantations,  clustering  and 
clinging  on  every  square  foot  of  cultivable  soil,  pro- 
duce the  rarest  tea  of  the  world's  great  farm,  and 
add  the  charm  of  green  things  growing.  Grown  in 
that  lofty  altitude,  the  tea,  perhaps  like  character, 
ripened  close  to  the  sky,  adds  a  nameless  flavor  not 
duplicated  by  that  grown  on  lower  ground. 

Back  in  Calcutta,  we  preached  for  Mr.  Wark  in 
the  First  Church,  one  of  the  first  five  or  six  leading 
Churches  of  the  connection.     That  Kansan  is  every 

134 


THE  GREAT  CIRCLE  OF  INDIA— II 

inch  a  man,  and  fewer  men  with  larger  life  experi- 
ence is  the  lesson  of  his  quick  adjustment  to  that 
international  parish.  INIiss  Maxey  is  the  elect  lady 
who  directs  the  affairs  of  the  Deaconess  Home. 
It  was  so  good  to  find  that  little  island  of  hope 
and  calm  in  "the  City  of  the  Dreadful  Night." 
We  went  on  a  night  expedition  with  Miss  Reeve,  of 
the  Lee  Home,  to  a  crowded  section,  where,  with  a 
stereopticon,  to  a  court  full  of  eager-faced  natives 
she  told  the  story  of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress. 

Three  things  clamor  to  get  said  before  we  con- 
clude this  chapter.  They  have  long  been  discussed 
in  the  private  debating  society  of  my  judgment, 
and  therefore  we  do  not  need  to  discuss  them  here, 
but  simply  enumerate  them. 

First,  the  Missionary  Society  should  in  some  way 
organize  the  special  gifts  department  and  send  for- 
ward the  appeals  from  the  New  York  office,  and 
not  burden  the  district  superintendents  of  India 
with  the  support  as  well  as  the  selection  and  admin- 
istration of  the  native  workers.  The  plan  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  works  ad- 
mirably. This  is  no  stricture  upon  missions  like 
that  of  David  Lee,  now,  as  always,  on  the  William 
Taylor  plan  of  self-support. 

135 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Second,  some  better  plan  of  selecting  mission- 
aries and  of  eliminating  inefficient  men  from  the 
field  must  be  devised.  Only  two  men  we  met  in 
our  work  abroad  would  not  have  our  welcome  were 
we,  as  once,  the  head  of  a  district ;  but  when  the 
two  approximate  two-fifths  of  the  recruits  to  the 
force  of  the  field  in  a  single  year,  they  mark  an 
administrative  failure. 

And  third,  one  or  two  of  the  missionary  bishops 
for  India  ought  to  be  commissioned  by  some  quasi 
authority  for  properly  financing  the  India  situa- 
tion. The  North  and  Northwest  India  Conferences 
require  an  annual  increase  of  $10,000  for  the  next 
five  years.  The  debts  of  the  Bombay  properties, 
as  well  as  those  elsewhere,  must  be  paid;  that  in- 
dustrial school  of  Mr.  Bancroft  enlarged  for  thou- 
sands instead  of  fifties.  Following  the  Thobum 
custom,  which  has  become  practically  a  precedent, 
one  or  two  of  those  bishops  should  face  the  financial 
stone  wall  in  America,  not  India.  It  is  to  be  a  long 
campaign,  and  like  all  kings  going  to  war,  we  must 
count  the  cost  and  finance  the  campaign,  not  by 
three-per-cent  cuts  on  the  whole  field,  but  by  some 
animating  consecration  that  will  increase  the  sup- 
port of  the  gospel  extension  in  the  Indo-peninsula. 

136 


Chapter  VIII 

HALF  WAY 

/CALCUTTA,  like  New  Orleans,  is  both  sea- 
^^  port  and  river-port.  The  sailings  are  early 
in  the  day,  so  that  the  ship  may  reach  the  mouth 
of  the  Hughli,  full  of  shifting  bars  and  dangerous 
currents,  before  dark.  We  looked  our  last  on  the 
Eden  Gardens,  Fort  William,  the  Hastings  Bridge, 
and  the  Engineering  College,  and  had  final  view 
of  the  botanical  gardens  founded  in  1786.  Ac- 
cording to  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  they  have  contrib- 
uted more  useful  and  ornamental  tropical  plants 
to  public  and  private  gardens  than  any  other  es- 
tablishment before  or  since.  The  "tea"  industry 
of  Northern  India  had  its  origin  in  the  brain  of 
one  of  its  curators.  There  was  more  for  India  in 
his  thought  than  in  those  "sublime  instincts  of  an 
ancient  people"  about  which  congressmen  talk  so 
glibly.  The  first  problem  of  life  is  food ;  therefore 
the   bread  question   presses.      Correlated   to   it   in 

137 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

India,  as  elsewhere,  is  the  labor  question.  The 
labor  markets  of  the  world  are  closed  to  them  be- 
cause of  their  ancestral  precedence  code.  You  can 
not  raise  food  enough  to  feed  India  with  a  crooked 
stick,  nor  harvest  it  with  a  reaping-hook,  nor  can 
you  give  a  man  work  who  will  only  work  with  men 
of  a  certain  caste.  It  is  good  to  think  of  the  full 
dinner-pail  that  "tea"  has  brought  to  many  men 
who  even  yet  never  have  any  food  left  after  a  meal. 
The  Ellenga,  of  the  British  India  Line,  on  which 
we  sailed,  is  one  of  a  large  fleet  of  antiquated  ships, 
making  up  in  number  what  they  lack  in  quality. 
Kipling  long  ago  labeled  the  line  as  "The  Mutton 
Mail,"  because  it  carries  sheep  and  coiTespondence 
to  Rangoon.  Sure  enough  the  sheep  were  "shooed" 
aboard  in  droves,  and  the  odor  stayed  with  us  to 
Singapore.  There  were  fully  two  hundred  black 
goats,  to  be  sacrificed  to  Kali,  who  dearly  loves 
"black  sheep."  The  British  India  is  the  most  pros- 
perous shipping  corporation  in  the  East.  The 
ships  are  operated  for  profit,  not  for  comfort. 
Like  the  ice-plant  in  our  town,  the  corporation 
needs  healthy  competition.  But  if  you  are  bound 
for  Rangoon  and  the  Shwe  Dagon,  pay  up  and 
haggle  not. 

138 


HALF  WAY 

The  Hughli  pilot  leads  a  hard  life,  is  full  of 
strange  stories,  and  he  of  the  Ellenga  knew  all 
about  Mark  Twain,  once  pilot  on  the  Mississippi. 
The  pilot's  pay  is  on  a  par  with  that  of  a  country 
school  teacher  in  Iowa,  and  he  gets  it  for  sending 
along  a  two-thousand-ton  ship  down  the  worst  river 
in  the  world,  with  five  or  six  hundred  people  aboard, 
at  eight  miles  an  hour,  and  then  killing  time  in  the 
estuary  on  a  malodorous  tug  until  he  finds  another 
ship  in  need  of  a  pilot  up-stream.  The  query  rises, 
Could  Clemens  have  become  Mark  Twain  if  bom 
on  the  banks  of  the  Huglili.^ 

We  left  the  pilot  at  Sandheads,  and  all  India 
dropped  out  of  sight.  India  and  the  story  of  how 
it  was  won  is  the  romance  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment, and  the  tragedy  of  how  nearly  it  was  lost  in 
the  Mutiny  blanches  the  lips  of  brave  men  yet.  Its 
thousand  years  of  religious  feud  between  Moham- 
medan and  Hindoo,  the  venomous  jungle  of  its  race- 
hatreds and  fierce  ancestral  distinctions  make  its 
retention  a  daily  conquest.  There  is  the  Sphinx 
of  Egypt  looming  vast  and  placid  above  the  Nile 
desert,  and  the  IMuscovy  monster  crushing  with  one 
paw  the  Finns  and  leering  at  Constantinople;  but 
India  is  the  Sphinx  of  the  Plain.    Yearly  the  work 

139 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

of  pushing,  wheedling,  and  browbeating  its  natives 
into  good  Hving  goes  forward: 

"The  cry  of  hosts  ye  humor, 

Ah!    slowly   toward   the  light;  — 
Why  brought  ye  us  from  bondage, 
Our  loved  Egyptian  night?" 

In  "Take  up  the  White  Man's  Burden,"  Kiphng 
has  caught  the  tidal  mood  of  colonizing  mankind 
now  swelling  in  the  tropics.  There  is  much  mawkish 
sentiment  in  London  and  Washington,  but  none  of 
it  discoverable  in  those  viceroys,  governors,  com- 
missioners, residents,  colonels,  captains,  and  sub- 
alterns on  duty  in  India;  nor  do  they  worry  the 
London  offices  with  long  disquisitions  on  the  riotous, 
degenerate,  murderous  life  to  which  they  are  slowly 
putting  an  end.  The}'^  concern  themselves  little 
with  contemporary  opinion,  and  leave  their  final 
appeal  by  deeds  to  posterity.  The  "big  brass  gen- 
erals" and  the  quiet,  inglorious  strong  men,  whom 
Kipling  so  nobly  celebrates,  are  at  their  posts,  as 
of  old,  tirelessly  watching.  The  Mutiny  put  them 
"on  guard"  every  hour.  They  are  doing  the  eter- 
nal thing  in  a  more  or  less  eternal  way,  quite  in 
contrast  with  our  program  in  Mexico,  where  the 
best  we  can  say  to  Americans  is,  "Pack  up  your 

140 


HALF  WAY 

railroads,  factories,  coffee,  sugar,  and  rubber  plan- 
tations and  come  home."  That  seems  like  doing 
the  contemporar}'  thing  in  a  contemporary  way. 
It  is  idealism  flying  in  panic  and  cringing  ob- 
sequiously to  Terror.  And  we  are  also  supposed 
to  be  talking  about  coming  home  from  the  Phil- 
ippines ;  the  men  who  went  to  India  may  be  trusted 
to  stay  there. 

Somewhere  out  in  the  crushed-sapphire  colored 
water  on  the  second  day,  between  chota-hazra  and 
"breakfast"  we  crossed  the  ninety-second  parallel, 
thus  completing  in  terms  of  longitude  half  way 
round  from  the  Iowa  farms  to  the  college  once  more. 
Half  way  in  miles  was  beyond  Singapore,  see-saw- 
ing, as  we  did,  up  to  Hong  Kong,  down  to  Manila, 
and  back  again.  Thus  we  came  upon  the  threshold 
of  the  Farthest  East. 

The  Ellenga  reached  Rangoon  Monday  morn- 
ing of  Passion  Week.  There  was  a  "bar"  to  cross, 
for  which  the  precise  time  of  tide  had  to  be  com- 
puted and  a  new  pilot  taken  on.  We  raced  by  the 
rice-ships  and  sampans  of  all  stjdes  and  ages,  and 
inferior  only  in  smells  to  those  of  Canton.  The 
Rangoon,  one  of  the  mouths  of  the  Irawaddy,  is 
a  low-banked,  muddy,  unimpressive  stream,  and  the 

141 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

trip  up  the  Ocalawaha,  in  Florida,  exceeds  in  di- 
version anything  to  be  obtained  by  riding  up  or 
down  the  Irawaddy.  The  British  India  ships  lie 
in  port  until  Thursday,  so  there  is  ample  time  to 
go  by  rail  to  the  capital, 

"On  the  road  to  Mandelay, 

Where  the  flying  fishes  play. 
And  the  sun  comes  up  like  thunder. 
Outer  China  'crost  the  hay," 

and  come  down  by  the  river  boat.  Disappointment 
increases  as  to  the  square  of  the  number  of  the 
tourists  who  take  the  trip. 

We  set  out  under  the  direction  of  C.  W.  Sever- 
ance to  take  a  census  of  the  Buddhas  in  Rangoon. 
The  first  temple  yielded  168,  and  with  cheerful 
confidence  in  our  ability  to  reach  one  thousand,  we 
next  tackled  the  Shwe  Dagon,  upheaving  itself  in 
the  sun,  girt  with  a  scaffolding  of  bamboo  poles, 
so  that  the  Burmese  may  acquire  merit  by  regilding 
its  wonderful  dome,  neither  Moslem  nor  Hindoo 
in  type.  When  our  total  in  that  temple  had  reached 
1,500,  with  many  nooks  and  chapels  still  to  be 
enumerated,  we  quit.  We  rely  for  success  upon 
patience  and  persistence,  but  for  once  they  failed 
us.      Including    those    awaiting    purchase    in    the 

142 


HALF  WAY 

art  stores,  we  should  estim'ate  that  at  least  four 
thousand  images  of  Buddha  are  to  be  found  in 
Rangoon.  We  have  "flag  day"  and  "carnation 
day,"  and  the  English  have  "primrose  day,"  but 
"Buddha  day"  is  all  the  year  round  in  Bumiah. 
The  new  railroad  carries  an  increasing  number  of 
tourists  up  "the  river  of  the  lost  footsteps,"  but 
the  swarms  it  brings  down  to  the  temple  of  the 
great  god  of  Idleness  there  on  the  hill,  surrounded 
by  the  English  cantonment,  constitutes  a  "yellow 
peril."  The  "land-grabbing"  English  are  over 
lords  to  gods  many,  but  none  are  more  unique  and 
more  economically  paralyzing  than  the  god  with 
his  fifteen  hundred  Buddhas  of  the  Shwe  Dagon. 
That  high  place,  winking  its  interrogation  to  the 
eastern  sun,  is  the  best  explanation  of  why  the 
English  came  and  will  likely  stay. 

We  attended  the  Passion  Week  ser\dces,  spent 
delightful  mornings  in  the  gardens,  shops,  and  tem- 
ples ;  visited  the  school,  the  Baptist  Publishing 
House,  and  were  vaccinated  afresh  in  the  municipal 
clinic.  We  went  to  Aloon  and  saw  the  huge  ele- 
phants haul  the  great  teak  logs  from  the  river's 
edge,  where  they  had  been  rafted  at  high  tide,  and 
watched  them  "salaam"  for  us  at  the  pick  of  the 

143 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Mahout ;  the  color,  the  women  unveiled,  the  markets, 
the  jail,  the  "Reclining  Buddha,"  equal  in  impres- 
siveness  to  the  one  at  Kamakura,  are  sights  worth 
a  year  of  languid  Southern  Europe.  But  most  of 
all  the  Severance  house,  in  Lancaster  Road;  the 
school  of  the  sisterhood,  next  to  it;  the  Buddhist 
mendicants,  as  they  make  their  rounds  begging  for 
rice;  the  bread-fruit  hanging  on  the  trees,  brings 
staccato  to  my  thoughts  if  it  is  repressed  in  ex- 
pression. The  Germans  train  all  the  young  men 
for  the  army;  in  Burmah  all  the  young  men  are 
educated  for  the  priesthood.  Plague  and  cholera 
persist  the  year  round,  and  not  merely  the  igno- 
rance, but  the  indifference  of  the  comfortable  folks 
at  home  to  all  that  distant  day's  work,  impresses 
me  with  its  injustice  and  stupidity.  For  example, 
the  General  Conference  has  authorized  Foreign  mis- 
sionaries. Home  missionaries,  Epworth  League  mis- 
sionaries, self-supporting  missionaries,  and  Wom- 
an's Foreign  missionaries.  Let  us  hope  that  the  de- 
voted household  in  Lancaster  Road  and  the  women 
adjacent,  with  all  similar  mission  compounds, 
hemmed  in  by  plague,  cholera,  smallpox  of  the 
black,  deadly  type,  needing  the  united  sympathy 
and  increased  support  of  the  Church  at  home,  can 

14^ 


HALF  WAY 

count  on  a  refusal  of  the  General  Conference  to  a 
further  division  of  responsibility  in  missionary  ad- 
ministration. 

Women  with  "bound  feet"  watched  our  landing 
from  the  lighter  at  Penang  on  Easter  morning.  It 
is  the  island  of  Paul  and  Virginia.  Hundreds  of 
'rikisha  men  stood  ready  to  whisk  us  away  to 
church  or  to  the  falls  and  temples  five  miles  away. 
We  went  to  the  FitzGerald  Memorial  Church; 
roomy  interior,  handsome  exterior;  convenient  to 
the  Anglo-Chinese  school,  and  reached  by  roads 
running  on  the  Parabola.  The  Easter  sermon  there 
was  like  having  again  the  holy  sacrament  from  the 
hands  of  that  great  bishop  of  the  ecclesia.  After 
lunch  at  the  Anglo-Chinese  school,  Dr.  Pykett,  one 
of  the  surpassing  Englishmen,  who  has  thrown 
himself  ^^dth  such  energy  and  success  into  our  work 
in  the  Straits  Settlements,  drove  us  to  Cornelia 
FitzGerald's  grave.  She  sleeps  in  a  spot  surrounded 
by  such  wild  beauty  as  no  other  country  could 
show,  and  contiguous  to  the  spacious  gardens.  On 
Easter  Day  in  such  environment — who  that  has  the 
Easter  hope  could  repress  the  upspringing  foun- 
tains of  thanksgiving.^  St.  Paul  said,  "The  time 
of  my  departure  is  at  hand,"  meaning  either  the 
10  145 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

launching  or  the  sailing  of  the  Immortal  Personal- 
ity. Whichever  meaning  may  be  imported  into  the 
phrase,  the  FitzGeralds  were  ready  for  decessus. 
"Our  people  die  well."  Let  us  more  frequently 
make  protest  against  the  an'ogance  of  science, 
which,  as  dogmatic  as  mediaeval  theology,  has  re- 
vived the  tenet  of  the  Sadducees,  "Who  say  there  is 
no  resurrection."  In  recent  years  science  has 
properly  asserted  its  theories  against  dogmatic 
theology,  but  there  has  been  over-assertion  as  well. 
The  public  now  find  that  they  have  only  exchanged 
one  priesthood  for  another,  and  we  are  now  asked 
to  confirm  that  nothing  which  can  not  be  weighed 
and  measured  shall  be  allowed  to  possess  validity. 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge  has  just  differentiated  the  soul 
from  its  material  embodiment  as  "the  constant  and 
identical  personality  running  through  one's  expe- 
riences," and  ranging  from  the  discussion  of  its 
existence  here  to  its  continuity  hereafter,  and  to 
the  question  of  its  immortality.  Quietly,  moder- 
ately, and  firmly  he  has  made  his  profession  of 
faith  in  the  persistence  of  personality  beyond 
bodily  death,  of  which  and  the  broad  truths  of  re- 
ligion he  has  been  convinced  by  strict  evidence. 
Doubtless  his  conclusions  will  be  challenged,  but 

146 


The  Buki  Pai.m. 


HALF  WAY 

none  will  deny  the  force  of  liis  protests  against  the 
negations  of  science — pure  dogmatism,  though 
couched  in  the  negative — or  the  vahdity  of  his  ap- 
peal to  the  primal  instincts  and  intimations  of  men 
in  all  ages  and  all  lands. 

We  took  the  tram  the  next  day  to  an  ancient 
"temple."  We  follo^red  for  miles  along  the  road, 
fringed  with  native  houses  and  shadowed  by  ever- 
lasting cocoanut  palms.  The  heat  was  heavy  with 
the  reek  of  vegetation  and  the  smell  of  earth  after 
heavy  rains.  Birds  whistled,  thunders  muttered  in 
the  hills,  and  the  breath  came  heavy  and  vaporous, 
like  that  in  a  Turkish  bath.  It  was  like  the  land 
of  the  "lotus  eaters." 

"And  in  the  afternoon  they  came  unto  a  land 
In   which   it  seemed  always   afternoon." 

We  climbed  the  long  hill,  fed  the  sacred  fish,  noted 
the  guardian  Gorgons,  and  penetrated  to  the  re- 
cesses of  the  main  pagoda.  We  saw  a  priest  who 
conforais  to  the  "Face"  which  Kipling  describes; 
"the  chin,  jowl,  lips,  and  neck  were  modeled  faith- 
fully on  the  lines  of  the  Roman  empresses — the 
lolloping,  walloping  women  that  Swinburne  sings 
about,    and    that   we    sometimes    see    pictures    of. 

147 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Above  this  gross  perfection  of  form  came  the  Mon- 
goloid nose,  narrow  forehead,  and  flaring  pigs'- 
eyes."  His  prototype  was  in  Jerusalem  on  the  day 
of  the  ciTicifixion,  and  he  is  a  fit  keeper  "for  a 
wilderness  of  clay  dolls  or  a  menagerie  of  jointed 
tigers." 

Singapore  is  Penang  over  again,  and  besides 
has  many  things  to  delight  the  eye.  Its  hostelries 
are  famous,  as  such  world-end  locations  are  certain 
to  become.  But  for  us  the  Book  Store  and  the 
Anglo-Chinese  school  are  worth  all  the  time  and 
study  a  globe-trotter  can  give  to  them.  Oldham 
Hall,  named  for  the  Rupert  of  the  Missionary  Sec- 
retariat, showed  us  the  one  challenge  to  democracy 
with  its  correlate  equality  which  we  found  an}'^- 
where  in  the  missionary  world.  They  provide  a 
first  and  second-class  "mess"  for  the  boys  who  re- 
side there.  It  is  made  necessary  by  the  crowds  that 
threaten  utterly  to  swamp  our  present  inadequate 
facilities.  There  are  1,400  boys  and  men,  segre- 
gated— esteeming  Cliristianity  to  be  the  English 
language,  physics,  chemistry,  biology,  that  is, 
Western  science  and  democracy.  Roberts  College 
is  the  guarantor  of  Balkan  freedom;  those  Anglo- 
Chinese  schools  of  Penang  and  Singapore  are  the 

148 


HALF  WAY 

pledge  and  prophecy  of  a  Chinese  RepubHc.  Six 
days  we  roamed  about  the  quaint  city,  visited,  as 
ever3'where,  the  American  Consulate,  talked  poli- 
tics, and  found  in  that  gateway  of  the  world  men 
of  consequence,  who  sit  in  social,  financial,  and  gov- 
ernmental high  places,  talking  with  approval  and 
intelligence  of  teacliing,  medical,  and  industrial 
missions.  Had  England  given  one-tenth  the  help 
to  China  that  she  has  given  to  India,  she  would 
at  this  hour  be  the  mistress  of  all  lands  and  im- 
pregnable in  the  affections  of  a  race  yet  to  domi- 
nate the  Orient. 

The  Nile,  a  large  intermediate  ship  of  the  Pen- 
insular &  Oriental  Line,  deeply  loaded  and  well 
appointed,  eighth  of  our  circumnavigating  fleet, 
bore  us  to  Hong  Kong.  The  Sunday  on  board 
was  as  quiet  and  orderly  as  any  ever  kept  in  a 
New  England  village.  One  man,  the  commander, 
reverent,  thoughtful,  so  impressed  the  passengers 
that  those  who  might  otherwise  have  been  tempted 
to  thoughtlessness  and  irreverence  deported  them- 
selves like  they  would  on  a  holy  day  at  home.  The 
"ser\dce"  read  by  the  commander  lasted  just  twenty 
minutes.  The  hymns,  in  which  every  one  joined; 
the  prayers,  and  the  Scriptures,  all  regularly  ap- 

149 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

pointed  for  the  day,  were  helpful,  and  the  collec- 
tion for  the  Seaman's  Orphanage  was  generous 
indeed.  The  English  ships  do  the  Sunday  service 
quite  to  our  satisfaction. 

The  Nile  steamed  into  Hong  Kong  through  a 
multiplicity  of  islets  and  deeply  indented  shores, 
sometimes  running  down  to  the  sea  in  little  sandy 
coves,  and  at  other  times  falling  sheer  in  a  cliff 
hanging  above  sea-wom  caves,  where  the  boom  of 
the  surf  could  be  heard.  The  harbor  is  a  world 
in  itself;  big  liners  at  anchor,  battleships,  lines  of 
junks,  wallowing  coal  hulks,  and  thousands  of  sam- 
pans between  miles  of  docks.  We  saw  with  rap- 
turous eyes  a  gunboat  and  a  transport  flying  the 
American  flag,  and  had  our  sympathy  excited  by 
a  Cliinese  river  steamer  that  had  been  looted  by 
pirates  and  was  flying  a  fl^g  of  distress.  The 
"Peak,"  reached  by  an  inclined  tram,  hangs 
frowningly  above,  dotted  with  green,  and  there  is 
notliing  so  easily  accessible  in  this  wide  world  that 
is  so  wild  and  wonderful  as  the  outlook  from  its 
top  with  its  fifty  miles  of  sky,  and  the  fortress 
with  its  twelve-inch  guns — and,  they  say,  without 
men  to  fight  them.  But  that  is  probably  some 
English    civilian    trembling.      Hong    Kong    is    a 

150 


HALF  WAY 

starting-point  for  Macao  and  Canton,  and  in  all  it 
detained  us  a  week.  Macao  makes  one  think  of 
Hell's  Half  Acre  up  in  Yellowstone  Park,  save  that 
the  seething  caldron  is  made  up  of  gamblers  and 
prostitutes.  The  ninety  miles  to  Canton  is  one 
continual  overhauling  and  passing  of  screw  steam- 
ers, pig  boats,  junks,  and  ducking  sampans.  Lit- 
erally hundreds  of  houseboats,  many  of  them 
sculled  by  women,  with  babies  lashed  to  their  backs, 
crowded  about  our  steamer  to  take  off  some  pas- 
senger or  some  package  of  freight.  The  mere 
mob,  fighting  for  their  places  about  the  ship,  was 
terrifying.  But  the  city  itself,  through  which 
tourists  are  borne  in  sedan-chairs  by  streets  so  nar- 
row that  one  can  often  touch  both  sides,  is  in- 
describable. The  waves  of  yellow  faces;  the  tier 
on  tier  of  signs,  red,  yellow,  black,  and  white;  the 
pigs  squealing  as  they  were  slaughtered ;  the  brazen 
dragons,  the  stench,  the  feathered  jewelry  shops, 
and  the  inlaid  workers,  baffled  description.  Only 
once,  and  that  on  Chicago  Day,  in  1893,  at  the 
World's  Fair,  were  we  caught  in  such  a  crowd. 

The  Temple  of  the  Five  Hundred  Genii,  where 
some  Jesuit  fathers  and  Marco  Polo  appear  in  the 
gallery;  the  ancestral  temple,  the  water  clock,  the 

151 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

potter's  field,  where  the  executions  take  place;  the 
Prison  of  Horrors,  where  in  a  Chinese  Eden  musee 
men  are  hacked,  sliced,  fried,  and  grilled;  the  city 
walls,  w^here  on  the  grass-grown  top  you  may  see 
rusty  English  guns  spiked  and  abandoned;  the 
myriads  of  dead  in  the  cemetery,  and  a  five-story 
pagoda  are  all  in  the  itinerary,  which  goes  on  hour 
after  hour  until  you  are  tired  and  disgusted,  and 
remember  the  lines  of  the  old  Watts  hymn, 

"Wallow   until   your   lives   be   through; 
Satan's  god  children  takes  your  due." 

There  is  one  thing  to  be  thankful  for,  and  that 
is  that  there  are  neither  dogs  nor  horses  to  be  seen. 
Well  it  is  for  Psi,  the  Scotch  collie  which  lives  at 
our  house,  and  for  the  handsome  roadster  that  our 
district  superintendent  drives,  that  both  were  bred 
in  Iowa.  Dore  ought  to  have  seen  Canton  before 
he    illustrated   the    "Inferno." 

The  Presbyterian  mission  at  Shek-Lung  is  a  little 
paradise  on  the  edge  of  Canton ;  all  the  missions  are 
oases  in  that  desert  of  life.  Yet  any  Chinese  mis- 
sion makes  one  think  of  a  small  rowboat  out  on  the 
Atlantic  within  hailing  distance  of  the  Titanic  five 
minutes  after  she  went  down.     At  Hong  Kong  we 

152 


HALF  WAY 

consorted  with  the  Germans.  We  lodged  at  the 
Berhn  Foundlings'  Home,  Lutheran,  whose  habit- 
ants persist  in  the  simple  homely  virtues  wliich  so 
commend  their  doctrines  and  their  nationality.  It 
was  so  restful  after  being  carried  in  chairs,  hurried 
along  in  'rikishas,  and  chasing  about  in  trams,  to 
sit  at  the  table  after  dinner  and  listen  while  the 
pastor  read  the  evening  lesson,  and  then  with  hymn 
and  prayer  to  "Put  out  each  feverish  light"  of 
those  garish  days. 

The  Zafiro,  a  trim  little  two-thousand-ton  ship, 
with  no  more  roll  nor  toss  than  a  North  River 
ferry  boat,  carried  us  safely  to  Manila.  We  passed 
Corregidor  just  at  dawn  and  had  a  wide,  long  look 
at  the  bay,  which  already  bulks  so  large  in  Ameri- 
can history,  while  the  east  was  empurpling  with 
the  new  day.  Our  daughter  and  other  friends  met 
us  at  the  pier  with  only  such  welcome  as  they  can 
give.  Little  could  any  of  us  have  dreamed  when 
we  first  heard  the  news  of  Dewey's  exploit  that  in 
less  than  fifteen  years  we  should  be  greeting  each 
other  in  sight  of  Cavite  and  admiring  together 
the  com  growing  in  the  field  of  insurrecto  Agui- 
naldo. 


153 


Chapter  IX 

THE   GREAT   AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

rriHE  bombardment  of  Alexandria  by  the  Eng- 
-*"  lish,  the  taking  over  of  Tunis  by  the  French, 
the  present  German  emperor's  activity  in  acquiring 
African  territory,  the  annexation  of  Tripoli  by 
Italy,  and  the  American  purchase  and  occupation 
of  the  Philippines  belong  to  the  catalogue  of  re- 
cent events  involving  the  colonizing  nations,  all 
located  in  the  temperate  zone,  in  the  government 
of  tropical  countries.  The  colonial  activity  of 
England  and  France  antedates  by  a  century  these 
present-day  enterprises,  but  with  the  English  oc- 
cupation of  Egypt  the  modem  movement  in  colo- 
nization, essentially  scientific  in  method  and  eco- 
nomic in  purpose,  begins. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  fact  that  Glad- 
stone had  his  hand  forced  in  the  Egyptian  matter. 
In  a  similar  way  the  nation  forced  McKinley's 
hand  and  thrust  this  insular  administration  upon 
him.     It  is  easy  to  prophesy  after  an  event,  and 

154 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

grow  wise  about  what  should  have  been  done. 
"Dewey  should  have  sailed  away  1"  But  no  one 
thought  of  that,  or  would  have  consented  to  it 
on  May  2,  1898.  "McKinley  should  not  have  paid 
$20,000,000  for  them,  according  to  the  Treaty  of 
Paris !"  But  it  was  McKinley,  not  our  interlocu- 
tor, whom  the  people  had  elected  to  approve  the 
negotiations.  "Treat  them  as  we  did  Cuba !"  "Get 
a  guarantee  of  their  independence  from  the  Great 
Powers;"  "Give  them  to  Japan,"  and  so  on,  in- 
cluding every  plan  except  the  one  we  are  now 
actually  following.  McKinley,  like  Gladstone,  rec- 
ognized the  National  impulse.     He  understood  the 

Nation, 

"whose  dull  voice  is  thunder 
And  was  the  key  beneath  its  finger  pressed." 

Other  Presidents  have  felt  this  imperative  of  public 
opinion.  "The  soul  is  where  it  acts,"  says  Lotze; 
and  Thomas  Jefferson,  contrary  to  all  his  own  po- 
litical maxims,  annexing  Louisiana,  was  the  soul 
of  a  larger  country  than  any  of  which  the  beard- 
less colonels  and  young  sages  who  w^on  the  Revo- 
lution ever  dreamed.  Grover  Cleveland  lacked 
imagination  and  missed  his  way  when  he  hauled 
down  the   flag  in  Hawaii.      The   instinct  of   the 

155 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

people  judged  it  better  than  Mr.  Cleveland,  with 
all  his  sterling  integrity. 

The  Panama  Canal  zone  is  another  case  in  point. 
President  Roosevelt  understood  the  Nation,  and 
the  Nation  felt  in  him  a  response  to  its  own  com- 
manding purpose.  The  Hindoo  syllogism  is  aca- 
demic: that  of  Occidental  life  is  efficient.  Some 
American  Hindoos  do  not  seem  to  know  that  Mr. 
Roosevelt  would  have  been  anathema  in  the  public 
mind  had  he  not  gone  forward:  that  the  claims  of 
Colombia  for  reimbursem'ent  have  less  validity  than 
those  of  Queen  Liliuokalani,  for  she  wrote  "Aloha 
Oe,"  and  that  the  Nation  of  America  aided  and  ap- 
proved the  purchase  of  the  canal  strip,  and  will 
praise  the  ex-President  for  it  "world  without  end." 

The  cuckoo  is  an  anomaly  in  the  bird-world.  By 
some  strange  instinct  it  foregoes  the  labor  of  other 
birds  in  nesting  and  feeding,  lays  its  eggs  in  alien 
nests,  and  entrusts  the  hatcliing  of  the  foundling 
eggs  and  the  rearing  of  the  young  to  the  owners 
of  the  nests  it  has  taken.  No  one  has  come  for- 
ward to  explain  how  such  an  instinct  is  developed, 
nor  do  we  know  why  other  birds  nest  the  eggs,  and 
welcome  and  feed  the  intruders.  Now,  are  we 
prepared  to  say  that  England,  France,  Germany, 

156 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

Italy,  and  the  United  States  are  cuckoos?  and  that 
Algiers,  Egypt,  China,  India,  and  the  Pliilipplnes 
are  alien  nests,  which  these  nations  have  appro- 
priated? 

The  program  of  the  Philippine  commissioners 
is  anything  but  cuckoo-like.  They  began  by  clean- 
ing up  the  Islands.  Like  the  Panama  Canal  strip, 
the  Islands  had  to  be  disinfected,  vaccinated,  and 
rendered  immune  against  cholera  and  bubonic 
plague.  Herein  the  United  States  has  attempted 
more,  and  improved  upon  all  that  England  or 
France  has  done.  In  1902  there  were  4!,662  cases 
of  cholera  in  ^lanila  alone,  with  3,560  deaths.  The 
provinces  had  that  same  year  120,996  cases  ;  77,972 
deaths  resulting  therefrom.  In  1911  Manila  had 
one  case  of  cholera,  with  death  resulting,  and  226 
cases  in  the  provinces,  with  182  deaths.  The 
cuckoo,  if  it  is  a  cuckoo,  brings  some  strange  se- 
curity to  the  Philippine  Islands'  nest.  Bubonic 
plague  plays  a  continuous  performance  in  all  the 
great  cities  of  the  Orient.  Human  nature  being 
as  it  is,  and  with  such  neighbors,  Manila  can  not 
hope  to  entirely  escape,  but  the  quarantine,  health 
inspection,  and  rigid  sanitary  regulations  are  so 
efficient  that  only  sporadic  cases  of  the  plague  now 

157 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

« 
occur.      Hong  Kong  furnishes  more  plague  in  a 

month  than  Manila  in  a  year. 

The  economic  development  of  the  Islands  is 
greatly  dependent  upon  the  increase  of  caribou 
and  the  introduction  of  cattle  and  animal  labor. 
The  rinderpest  is  as  desolating  to  cattle  as  cholera 
and  plague  to  the  natives,  and  the  fight  the  Gov- 
ernment makes  against  rinderpest  is  second  only 
to  that  which  it  makes  to  save  human  life.  It  is 
common  to  meet  some  captain  or  lieutenant  with 
a  detail  of  constabulary  coming  or  going  to  a 
rinderpest-mi^ci^di  district,  where,  by  the  latest 
and  most  approved  veterinary  treatment,  they  save 
a  few  animals,  isolate  the  scourge,  and  at  times  al- 
together stamp  it  out. 

Since  1907  the  railroad  mileage  has  increased 
from  122  to  455.  The  civilizing  force  of  a  rail- 
road is  less  appreciated,  perhaps,  in  the  United 
States  than  almost  anywhere  else.  Our  struggle 
for  the  control  of  passenger  rates  and  freight  tar- 
iffs, and  against  railroad,  legislative,  and  judicial 
influence  has  obscured  the  dependence  which  eco- 
nomic and  social  progress  must  place  on  transpor- 
tation. One  dollar  spent  on  a  railroad  is  worth  a 
hundred  invested  in  army  equipment,  and  the  333 

158 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

additional  miles  oi  railway  are  worth  a  hundred 
thousand  rifles  and  millions  spent  on  military  oper- 
ations. Then  add  the  public  buildings,  artesian 
wells,  irrigation  projects,  and  macadam  roads  that 
to  the  amount  of  8,533,214  pesos  have  been  built 
out  of  the  public  revenues  last  year;  then  figure 
as  much  spent  for  the  same  pui'pose  the  year  be- 
fore, and  estimate  that  as  much  will  be  so  expended 
the  coming  year,  and  the  next;  add  the  increased 
production  of  sugar,  rice,  hemp,  and  tobacco ;  the 
introduction  of  corn-growing,  the  diversifying  of 
the  crops,  scientific  coinage,  a  just  levy  of  taxes 
and  their  honest  expenditure,  and  a  dozen  other 
specifications  which  help  toward  economic  inde- 
pendence, before  you  cry  "Cuckoo." 

The  educational  program  is  unique  in  that  it 
purposes  to  reform  the  archaic  and  almost  barbaric 
amusements  of  the  whole  people.  Loungers  about 
the  railway  depots  caiTy  game  cocks  under  their 
arms,  which  suggest  cock-fighting  as  the  national 
game  of  the  Tagalogs.  Baseball  has  taken  its 
place,  and  everybody,  from  the  governor-general 
do^vn,  except  a  few  nonconforming  clergymen, 
play  ball.  They  encourage  labor  and  thrift  by 
trade  schools  run  as  commercial  shops;  they  have 

159 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

opened  up  all  the  known  vocational  opportunities 
to  the  new  generation.  They  have  searched  out 
native  materials  and  made  them  available  for  indus- 
trial use,  so  that  bamboo,  Buri  palm,  Nipa  and 
Abaca  or  Manila  hemp  are  many  times  more  com- 
mercially important  than  before  the  public  schools 
taught  their  manufacturing  possibilities.  The 
Coast  Guard  service  provides  a  great  nautical 
school,  and  the  constabulary  gives  opportunity  for 
a  military  education,  which  opens  rapid  preferment 
to  those  who  are  diligent  and  efficient.  In  a  word, 
the  Philippine  schools  provide  a  gainful  occupation 
and  an  English  education  to  every  boy,  and  nurse's 
training,  basketry,  hat-making,  cloth- weaving,  do- 
mestic science,  designing,  and  embroidery  for  every 
girl. 

The  youth  of  the  Government  and  the  ardor  ol 
the  American  occupation  is  sure  to  impress  the 
visitor.  The  vice-governor-general,  also  secretary 
of  education,  the  director  of  education,  his  first  and 
second  assistants,  are  all  men  from  the  universities 
of  the  Central  West,  young,  exhuberantly  hopeful, 
with  faces  full  of  energy  and  free  from  cynicism. 
It  is  men  of  their  type  who  maintain  civil  order, 
control  the  diseases  of  the  climate,  and  attempt 

160 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

"by  slow  prudence  to  make  mild 
A  rugged   people,  and  through   soft  degrees 
Subdue  them  to  the  useful  and  the  good," 

and  in  the  sixteen  years  since  the  Battle  of  jManila 
Bay  have  put  the  Islanders  far  on  their  way  to 
self-respect,   self-support,   and  self-control. 

It  should  not  appeal  to  the  public  to  say  that  all 
this  is  done  without  expense  to  the  American  tax- 
payer, but  such  is  the  case.  Except  for  the  regi- 
ments that  are  quartered  in  the  Philippines,  and 
the  warships  on  station  or  in  dry  dock  there,  no 
expense  attaches  to  the  occupation.  The  Govern- 
ment might  better  quarter  its  troops  at  the  Manila 
Camp  McKinley,  or  at  the  Baguio  Camp  John 
Hay,  than  at  many  of  the  152  army  posts  where  it 
now  scatters  them.  The  same  is  true  of  the  navy. 
Without  expense  to  ourselves,  by  special  tariffs, 
we  have  aided  the  Islanders,  but  except  for  the 
initial  cost  and  the  expense  of  suppressing  the 
Aguinaldo  insurrection,  of  actual  outlay  nothing. 
It  is  a  reproach  to  the  American  Churches  that 
great  schools  like  the  Anglo-Chinese  school  at 
Penang  and  the  one  of  similar  name  at  Singapore 
should  be  compelled  to  support  themselves;  so  it 
seems  to  dampen  enthusiasm  to  learn  that  in  all 
11  161 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

this  the  American  taxpayer  has  no  part.  But  the 
American  Nation  has  furnished  pohtical  and  social 
stabihty  and  a  group  of  men  with  great  adminis- 
trative capacity,  who  have  fertiHzed  by  their  pa- 
tience, accuracy,  and  enthusiasm  thousands  of 
Tagalogs,  who  in  the  passing  of  the  years  will  keep 
up  to  the  standards  of  capacity  and  integrity  they 
have  set. 

The  upper-class  Tagalog,  usually,  or  often  at 
least,  a  mestizo,  does  not  understand  the  American. 
He  has  been  reared  in  a  practice  of  goverament 
where  the  official  classes  exploit  the  rank  and  file. 
Since  Legazpi  occupied  Manila,  in  1571,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  old  Spanish  families  have  grown 
rich  in  office.  That  is  what  office  means  to  them — 
a  chance  to  enrich  themselves  at  public  expense. 
It  Is  in  the  blood,  and  has  been  as  long  as  they  have 
been  developing  their  facial  angle.  Aguinaldo  fail- 
ing in  insurrection,  grew  rich  in  land  and  pesos 
by  the  failure.  No  one  reproaches  him  for  it ;  it 
was  expected;  anything  else  would  have  been  in- 
comprehensible. That  members  of  the  Pliilippine 
commission  should  govern  without  graft  and  treat 
public  office  as  a  public  trust  excites  their  infidelity. 
Nor  can  they  explain  why  a  great,  wise,  and  be- 

16^ 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

neficent  Government  does  not  punish  their  frequent 
lapses  from  loyalty ;  they  think  it  some  weakness 
in  the  goyemment.  Our  long  forbearance  wliile 
they  steal  rifles,  shoot  down  soldiers,  and  run 
amuck  under  their  law  of  "jura  mentado,"  they 
count  inability  on  our  part  to  make  reprisals. 
They  misunderstand  the  reasons  for  granting  a 
Philippine  Assembly  even  now,  and  they  misunder- 
stood the  long  sufferance  of  the  American  Congress 
and  the  American  people,  while  peonage  and  slav- 
ery went  on  for  lack  of  penal  clauses  giving 
validity  to  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution. They  tliink  that  American  citizens  be- 
lieve that  their  honor  would  suffer  if  penal  clauses 
were  enacted  for  punisliing  such  criminals.  The 
new  Administration  deserves  credit  for  the  prompt- 
ness with  which  the  Assembly  enacted  the  new  laws 
upon  the  arrival  of  the  new  governor-general.  But 
the  simple-hearted  Igorrote  and  Ifagao  seem  to 
appreciate  our  sincerity,  and  perhaps  just  as  the 
birds  whose  nests  are  stolen  tolerate  the  cuckoo- 
eggs,  so  in  some  blind  way  these  dependent  heathen 
better  estimate  our  motives  than  the  caciques  of 
mixed  blood,  and  the  hereditary  disposition  to 
graft  and  official  exploitation. 

163 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

There  are  now  three  distinct  forces  in  the  Phil- 
ippines making  for  civihzation ;  first  is  the  Govern- 
ment, which  is  doing  the  work  of  the  teaching  mis- 
sionary, the  medical  missionary,  with  the  powers 
of  the  policeman  added.  Second  or  third,  for  the 
order  is  not  determinative,  should  be  mentioned  the 
Catholic  archbishop.  Dr.  Harty,  formerly  of  St. 
Louis.  Six  or  eight  American  priests  followed 
him  to  the  field.  The  archbishop  looks  like  the 
typical  American  with  Irish  forbears;  face  and 
bearing  mark  him  as  well  fitted  to  be  the  religious 
leader  of  7,000,000  Filipinos,  nominally  Christian, 
at  least.  In  his  person  and  character  he  has  done 
much  to  recover  influence  and  sympathy  for  the 
Roman  Church.  Granted  that  he  is  of  the  Farley- 
Falconio  group  of  churchmen,  is  surrounded  by 
Spanish  clerics,  who  utter  the  most  absurd  opinions 
and  prefer  ungrantable  requests  in  the  name  of  a 
papal  delegate,  he  yet  seems  the  diplomatic  equal 
of  Archbishop  Ireland,  and  on  the  spiritual  level 
of  the  present  Pope  Pius  X.  The  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries in  the  Islands  are,  to  compare  them  to 
army  chaplains,  few  in  number,  much  ordered  about 
by  colonels  and  generals,  and  yet  by  virtue  of 
character   and    conduct   of   great   consequence   to 

164 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

armies  and  nations.  The  Government's  part  is  to 
educate  and  maintain  health  and  order.  The 
archbishop's  part  is  to  conform  the  Roman  CathoHc 
Church  to  the  fact  of  a  modern  American  Govern- 
ment, and  with  the  help  of  American  priests  reform 
the  native  priesthood  from  the  mcdiseval  Spanish 
to  the  English-Irish-American  standard.  The 
Protestant  part  is  to  set  a  standard  of  temperance, 
purity,  Sabbath-observance;  to  build  donnitories 
for  men  and  women  in  connection  with  all  the  nor- 
mal and  provincial  high  schools,  and  thus  exemplify 
the  decent,  self-respecting  life  which  is  the  one 
basis  for  American  citizenship.  They  may  as  they 
will  serv^e  as  chaplains  extraordinary  to  anny,  navy, 
civil  service  employees,  and  historic  Church,  warn- 
ing, encouraging,  and  bringing  to  the  broad  glare 
of  publicity  lapses  from  the  integrity  and  broad- 
mindedness  which  America  expects  of  all  its  indi- 
viduals and  institutions,  besides  uttering  that  evan- 
gelistic message  which  men  of  good  will  have 
sounded  from  the  beginning. 

Congress  can  confer  anarchy ;  independence  is 
beyond  its  power  at  the  present  writing.  By  some 
premature  action,  just  as  the  establishing  of  the 
Philippine  Assembly  with  its  present  powers  w^as 

165 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

premature,  Congress  may  aid  to  establish  two  self- 
styled  "republics,"  one  terrorized  by  the  ]\Ioros  and 
Visayans,  the  other  certif3^ing  to  the  exploitation 
of  diverse  peoples  to  the  number  of  8,000,000  by 
a  few  hundred  Tagalogs,  to  whom,  because  they 
understand  either  English  or  Spanish,  the  Govern- 
ment perforce  must  be  committed.  "One  free 
people  can  not  govern  another,"  said  James  An- 
thon}^  Froude ;  but  that  is  not  saying  that  they 
may  not  co-operate  with  each  other,  that  they  may 
not  federate  their  forces  for  protection,  for  mutual 
advantage,  and  for  consein-ation  and  economy  of 
resources.  The  United  States  are  free  and  self- 
governing,  if  they  are  not  independent. 

Independence  is  a  state  of  civilization  to  be  ac- 
quired and  realized,  not  conf eiTed ;  in  the  language 
of  events,  if  not  in  formal  words,  democracy  has 
enumerated  the  conditions  on  wliich  modern  inde- 
pendencies may  occur ;  they  are :  self-support,  after 
some  simple,  hard-working,  self-sacrificing  stand- 
ard which  we  are  all  quick  to  recognize ;  self-con- 
trol, so  that  the  verdict  of  a  majority  serves  as  a 
warrant  for  orderly  procedure  and  a  waraing 
against  revolution;  self-respect,  so  that  sensitive- 
ness does  not  too  much  depreciate  resourcefulness 

166 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  ADVENTURE 

in  the  presence  of  difficulties,  and  weaken  the  cour- 
age with  which  we  meet  them;  intelKgence  and  a 
deepening  consciousnes  of  what  good  and  evil,  duty 
and  pleasure  are.  No  sentimental  associations  can 
waive  any  one  of  these  terms,  nor  can  self-interest 
bribe  our  partiality  to  set  them  aside.  Because 
we  have  a  July  4,  1776,  is  not  per  se  proof  that 
the  Philippine  Islanders  are  ready  for  self-govern- 
ment. When  a  large  body  of  middle  and  lower 
class  citizens,  increasing  in  number  and  influence 
with  each  passing  year,  knowing  what  it  means, 
yearn  for  independence;  when  another  large  body 
of  Filipinos  year  after  year  put  on  record  and 
reiterate  their  consuming  desire  to  be  received  into 
the  American  Union  as  a  Territorv,  we  shall  have 
evidences  that  mav  make  action  advisable.  Until 
that  time  the  words  defining  our  National  policy 
may  remain  in  abeyance. 


167 


Chapter  X 
EDUCATION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

''TT  ITCHENER'S    SCHOOL"   is   one   of   the 

-■•  ^  flaslilight  phrases  to  the  credit  of  KipHng. 
It  illustrates  his  incisive  way  of  getting  at  the 
heart  of  things,  and  his  picturesque  power  of  pre- 
senting contemporaneous  events  with  artistic  effect 
and  in  decisive  fashion.  The  dedication  of  Gordon 
College  at  Khartoum  gave  him  opportunity  to  com- 
press into  a  few  lines  the  duty  of  colonizing  peo- 
ples, and  his  use  of  the  incident  has  not  only  im- 
bedded the  fact  of  the  college  into  the  history  of 
our  own  times,  but  also  indicated  education  as  the 
sure  process  from  brute  force  to  spintual  enlarge- 
ment. The  best  traditions  of  the  race  relate  to  the 
insti-uction  of  the  young,  and  the  nations  that  put 
greatest  capital  into  teaching  live  best  and  longest. 
Kitchener's  School  celebrates  the  English  race  as 
the  great  "teacliing  nation,"  and  their  genius  in 
this  particular  is  eccentric  to  the  verge  of  madness. 

168 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

"Knowing  that  ye  are  forfeit  by  battle,  and  have  no 

right  to  live, 
He  begs  for  money  to  bring  j'oii  learning — and  all  the 

English  give. 
It  is  their  treasure — it  is  their  pleasure — thus  are  their 

hearts    inclined; 
For  Allah  created  the  English  mad — the  maddest  of  all 

mankind! 

"They  do  not  consider  the  Meaning  of  Things;  they  con- 
sult not  creed  nor  clan. 

Behold,  they  clap  the  slave  on  the  back,  and,  behold, 
he  ariseth  a  man! 

They  terribly  carpet  the  earth  with  dead,  and  before 
their  cannon   cool, 

They  walk  unarmed  by  twos  and  threes  to  call  the  living 
to  school." 

But  the  school,  according  to  the  poem,  is  an  ex- 
planation of  the  men.  Tliis  Mohammedan  school- 
master, who  had  sei-^^ed  with  the  Bengal  Infantry 
at  Suakim,  the  supposed  author  of  the  poem,  gropes 
to  the  social  meaning  of  the  school  and  the  attitude 
of  the  school  teacher.     It  is  the  English  who 

"Have  set  a  guard  on  the  granaries,  securing  the  weak 

from  the  strong, 
And  said,  'Go,  work  the  water-wheels  that  were  abolished 

so  long.'  " 

We  know  the  function  of  the  school:  first,  to 
select  and  train  leaders ;  and  second,  to  raise  the 

169 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

mass  of  the  people  to  the  plane  of  intelligent  par- 
ticipation in  all  essential  social  activities.  But 
more  than  this  education  modifies  a  nation  in  an 
entirely  original  and  pecular  way.  The  problem 
of  Danvin  is,  "How  does  environment  affect  men?" 
but  education  conforms  environment  to  ideas  and 
ideals  that  in  result  preserve  and  perpetuate  the 
men  who  have  modified  their  suiToundings.  We  all 
recollect  Darwin's  statement  about  the  influence  of 
cats  on  the  growth  of  clover  in  their  neighborhood ; 
have  read  the  effect  of  the  European  rabbits  in 
New  Zealand,  and  have  discussed  pro  and  con  the 
English  sparrow,  as  to  whether  he  benefits  by  eating 
canker  worms  more  than  he  damages  by  driving 
away  native  birds.  So  the  importation  of  a  virile 
race  of  men  to  Egypt,  to  India,  or  the  Philippines, 
men  used  to  plethora  of  bread,  and  knowing  how 
to  raise  it,  brings  about  a  rearrangement  of  social 
relations.  These  men  act  as  a  fennent,  exemplify 
new  standards,  Initiate  new  methods,  set  new  pre- 
cedents, and  fertilize  by  their  vigor  and  efficiency 
the  agriculture,  trade,  and  industry  of  the  new 
land. 

Kitchener,  with  his  orders  to  punish  the  mur- 
derers of  General  Gordon,  parallels  Admiral  Dewey 

170 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

with  his  instiTictions  "to  find  and  destroy  the  Span- 
ish fleet."  There  are  many  ready  to  sneer  at  Eng- 
land as  bent  on  merely  extending  trade,  and  who 
denounce  the  Soudan  expedition  as  jingoism. 
Kipling  is  nothing,  say  some,  but  a  "jingo"  and 
a  sort  of  unofficial  member  of  Parliament  represent- 
ing "imperialism"  as  liis  constituency.  England 
probably  deseryes  criticism,  but  it  should  be  for  not 
doing  in  Armenia  what  she  did  in  the  Soudan. 
It  is  easy  to  cry  "imperialism,"  as  if  that  settled 
anything.  Its  social  yalue  or  political  force  is 
about  equal  to  the  Oriental  method  of  replying  to 
whateyer  difficult  question  is  proposed  by  the  un- 
impeachable truism,  "Allah  is  great."  Not  to  fall 
back  on  the  gods  when  a  proximate  principle  can 
be  found  is  one  of  the  superiorities  of  Christianity 
to  pagan  faiths.  It  is  proof  of  an  efficient  as  dis- 
tinguished from  an  inefficient  intellect,  and  is  guar- 
antee that  England  will  continue  to  goyern 

"Those    new-caught    sullen    peoples. 
Half   devil   and  half  child," 

over  whom  she  has  gradually  assumed  control.  A 
certain  amount  of  self-assertion  is  indispensable  to 
national  as  well  as  indiyidual  existence,  and  any- 

171 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

thing  that  will  rouse  the  sleeping  nerve-centers  of 
national  self-respect,  such  as  the  occupation  of 
Algiers  by  the  French  or  the  conquest  of  Tripoli 
by  the  Italians,  is  well  worth  while.  It  is  none  the 
less  good  work  if  trade  is  increased  by  it.  Law  and 
order,  increased  tillage  of  land,  and  better  ideas  of 
equity  and  justice  have  likewise  resulted.  Kitch- 
ener's School  is  notice  that  civilization  sends  out  to 
the  world  that  independent  nations  must  educate 
their  children. 

America  interfered  in  Cuba  vnth  something 
like  Christian  motives,  and  the  occupation  of  the 
Philippines  was  a  reluctant  second  move,  made  nec- 
essary by  the  first  step.  The  nation  would  not  be 
content  to  administer  the  Islands  with  any  other 
intent  than  to  benefit  the  Islanders.  Wages  have 
doubled  since  the  American  occupation,  and  only 
the  fact  that  they  are  an  American  dependency  pro- 
tects them  now.  Left  to  themselves,  the  Philippines 
would  be  overwhelmed  by  the  migrating  Chinese 
just  as  the  Straits  Settlements,  Java,  and  Indo- 
China  have  been  overwhelmed.  The  Japanese  by 
trade  discriminations  or  otherwise  would  certainly 
add  them  to  the  Mikado's  realms,  even  if  by  any 
stretch  of  the  imagination  they  could  be  thought 

172 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

able  to  protect  themselves  against  the  Chinese. 
Democrac}^  has  seemed  to  fail  in  Latin  America, 
either  from  political  tradition  inherited  from  Spain, 
or  from  lack  of  universal  education.  The  Fili- 
pinos have  the  same  political  training  as  Latin 
America ;  if  by  education  he  can  become  possessed 
of  the  self-governing  capacity  hitherto  shown  only 
by  the  wliite  race,  the  altruism  of  America  will  be 
demonstrated  be3^ond  question. 

One  does  not  need  to  go  to  the  Philippines  to 
learn  the  relationship  of  education  to  industry, 
and  the  recent  tremendous  expansion  of  industrial 
training.  But  an  ordinar}^  traveler  could  not  spend 
a  month  in  the  islands  without  feeling  that  they 
have  there  an  able  group  of  young  and  enthusias- 
tic teachers  who  have  mapped  out  a  unique  edu- 
cational program  and  are  carrying  it  forward  by 
methods  of  instruction,  entertainingly  original  and 
free  from  all  suspicion  of  educational  tradition. 
The  program  of  Dr.  Kerschensteiner,  of  Munich, 
whose  objective  is  a  pupil  in  training  to  take  his 
place  as  a  useful  citizen  in  the  largest  capacity, 
finds  its  counterpart  in  the  educational  system  of 
the  Philippines. 

We  should  expect  to  find  graded  school,  high 

17B 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

school,  normal  and  trade  school.  In  the  trade 
schools  we  should  expect  carpentry,  cabinet-mak- 
ing, basketry,  straw-braiding,  and  hat-making, 
sandal  and  slipper  manufacture,  weaving,  em- 
broidery, and  domestic  science.  But  to  search  out 
the  native  materials  available  for  industrial  use,  to 
establish  new  industries,  to  multiply  tenfold  the 
productive  power  of  human  labor,  in  tea,  rice  and 
sugar  plantations,  to  reform  the  amusements  of  a 
whole  people,  to  make  trade  and  agricultural 
schools  financially  self-supporting,  and  to  direct 
young  men  to  every  vocational  path,  from  marine 
officer  to  supreme  court  judge,  and  meanwhile  to 
keep  zest  in  the  practice  of  striving  toward  an 
educational  end,  is  to  justify  the  word  of  an  Amer- 
ican scholar  to  Ex-President  Taft,  that  our  Govern- 
ment was  "doing  the  most  interesting  and  most 
promising  piece  of  original  work  in  education  now 
in  progress  anywhere  in  the  w^orld."  It  might  be 
added  that  all  this  has  been  accomplished  at  one- 
tenth  the  cost  for  similar  work  per  capita  in 
America. 

One  scarce  knows  where  to  begin  in  an  exposition 
of  the  unique  aim  and  quality  of  American  educa- 
tion in  the  islands.    Let  us  have  the  first  paragraph 

174 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

on  com.  Corn  is  king  in  the  United  States,  and 
will  be  in  the  Philippines.  Once  in  Germany  we 
attended  a  fair,  or  perhaps  we  would  better  call  it 
a  social  function,  held  for  the  popularizing  of 
corn-food  products.  In  a  way,  agricultural  educa- 
tion in  the  Philippines  has  had  as  one  of  its  direct 
aims  the  growing  of  corn.  Out  there  a  young  and 
aggressive  group  of  teachers  from  the  American 
corn-belt  has  presei^'ed  the  memory  of  the  tasseled 
brigade  of  the  royal  corn,  and  set  the  islanders  into 
an  acute  palpitation  to  raise  the  best  field  of  corn. 
A  kodak  picture  recently  produced  in  the  Christian 
Advocate  showed  the  famous  Aguinaldo,  leader  of 
the  insurrection  and,  next  to  Rizal,  hero  of  the 
Tagalogs,  standing  with  the  first  assistant  director 
of  education  in  a  prize  acre  of  corn  planted  and 
cultivated  by  Aguinaldo,  Jr.  One  needs  to  go  to 
the  Philippines  to  understand  what  that  picture 
means :  a  rich  man's  son  actually  at  manual  labor ; 
a  Filipino,  not  loving  labor,  winning  a  prize 
thereby ;  and  thus  exciting  the  emulation  of  a  mil- 
lion like  labor-unloving  Filipinos,  who  could  be 
taught  in  no  other  way  that  work  is  honorable  and 
indolence  one  of  the  seven  deadly  sins.  All  the 
diplomacies  of  modern  courts,  cabinets,  and  cabals 

175 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

do  not  equal  the  subtle  -finesse  in  putting  the  Fili- 
pino boj  to  work.  It  is  Tom  Sawyer  up  to  date, 
not  with  whitewash  and  binish,  and  fence  to  be  cov- 
ered, but  his  American  counterpart  under  the  blaz- 
ing tropic  glare,  with  plow  and  hoe,  and  corn  to 
be  grown.  They  have  the  young  women  in  the 
com  business,  too.  They  hold  multiplied  com 
demonstrations,  where  the  young  w^omen,  students 
of  the  domestic  science  departments  of  the  pro- 
vincial schools,  under  the  direction  of  domestic 
science  teachers,  prepare  and  serv^e  dishes  of  corn- 
foods  to  vast  crowds  that  hour  after  hour  surround 
the  booths.  Would  all  Mount  Pleasant  go  to  a 
mango  fair?  They  would  if  they  had  but  once 
tasted  a  ripe,  juicy,  delicious  mango.  Would  all 
Dumequete  go  to  a  corn-product  festival  .^^  Six 
thousand  of  them  did.  There  were  six  different 
dishes  of  corn  prepared  and  sold,  and  probably 
four  thousand  ate  of  one  or  more  of  these  prepared 
dishes.  What  a  sideshow  the  corn-germinating  box 
was,  and  how  the  thousands  looked  at  the  selected 
seed-ears !  American  plows  and  corn-shellers  and 
cornmills  were  all  on  exhibition,  and  a  swarm  of 
boys,  some  of  them  dressed  as  fat,  husky  clowns, 

176 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

wore  placards,  "I  eat  corn ;"  others,  dressed  as  lean 
clowns,  wore  other  placards,  "I  eat  rice,"  while 
all  took  part  in  the  band  that  furnished  music  and 
amusement  for  the  crowd.  Rice  is  the  Oriental 
food;  unnumbered  millions  rejoice  and  feast  when 
it  is  plenty,  and  mourn  and  starve  when  it  is  scarce. 
But  corn  and  corn,  pone,  and  com  cakes,  like  science 
and  the  English  language,  and  the  Christian  faith, 
belong  to  Occidental  civilization.  It  is  suggestive 
of  fat  swine,  thick  beefsteaks,  butter  and  cheese, 
and  the  introduction  of  com  to  the  Philippine 
Islands  is  naturalization,  revolution,  and  revelation. 
The  same  subtlety  is  marked  in  the  athletics  in- 
troduced and  fostered  by  the  bureau  of  education. 
The  problem  of  abolisliing  the  American  saloon, 
so  that  it  will  stay  abolished,  is  to  find  something 
better  and  substitute  it  for  the  saloon.  So  these 
Tagalogs  have  amusements  practiced  for  three 
hundred  years  in  the  islands,  and  by  their  forbears, 
both  Spanish  and  Malay,  for  century  on  century 
before  Philip  II  i-uled.  The  two  most  typical  were 
cock  and  bull  fighting.  It  is  needless  to  expatiate 
upon  the  utter  cruelty  of  both,  nor  mention  the  gam- 
bling and  general  lawlessness  consequent  upon  them. 
12  177 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Now  comes  the  former  secretary  of  education,  one- 
time major  in  the  Spanish- American  War,  member 
of  Congress,  Federal  judge  in  the  islands,  member 
of  the  Philippine  Commission  before  he  was  forty 
years  old.  He  nominates  for  director  of  education 
and  first  and  second  assistant  directors  of  education 
three  big,  young  Americans,  fresh  from  big,  whole- 
some, American  universities.  The  problem  up  to 
this  quartet  is  how  to  abolish  cock  and  bull  fights. 
In  fifteen  seconds  they  all  leap  to  the  same  induc- 
tion, "Let  us  introduce  baseball."  Forthwith  it 
is  done.  The  vacant  lots  are  occupied,  attendance 
at  the  chicken  and  bull  fights  falls  off;  the  sport- 
ing goods  firms  are  requisitioned  from  America; 
sweaters  and  "letters"  appear  on  runners,  hurdlers, 
and  players ;  the  physical  directors  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  are  drafted  as  coaches ; 
every  teacher  of  the  male  persuasion  gets  into  the 
game.  Ever^'body  played  ball,  or  coached  or 
rooted  at  the  games.  The  clergy  were  not  immune, 
and,  barring  the  nonconforaiist  missionaries,  all 
the  clergy  in  the  islands  could  probably  be  con- 
victed of  playing  baseball  on  Sunday.  Basket  ball, 
volley  ball,  relay  ball,  and  track  athletics  followed 

178 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

in  the  procession  until  a  nation  of  gamblers  and 
cock-fighters  forgot  the  stupid  and  cruel  sports  of 
even  ten  years  ago  and  have  become  naturahzed 
Americans  at  least  in  their  devotion  to  the  Amer- 
ican game.  The}^  inin  like  the  wind,  leap  like  light- 
ning, and  can  peg  a  ball  as  far  as  their  American 
compatriots,  on  the  average  nine  inches  higher  in 
stature.  In  Tok3'o  we  saw  the  all-Filipino  team 
play  Meiji,  the  imperial  university  nine;  and  to 
behold  eight  thousand  Japanese  rooting,  waving 
pennants,  and  chaffing  the  umpire  made  us  think 
that  Luzon,  Japan,  and  the  L'nited  States  had  long 
since  fonned  the  triple  baseball  alliance.  The 
Oh'mpic  games  for  Eastern  Asia,  where  Filipino, 
Jap,  and  Chinese  competed,  the  crowds  that  at- 
tended and  the  new  standards  of  manhood  that  in 
those  games  had  rapid  growth  speak  volumes  for 
the  educational  experiment  which  has  succeeded  be- 
yond all  expectation  in  the  Pliilippines. 

The  nautical  school,  tea  cultivation,  the  making 
of  Bally-wag  hats,  the  adoption  of  the  Rigadone, 
the  stately  old  dance  of  the  Filipinos,  the  way  a 
clump  of  abaca  plants  have  been  taught  to  disap- 
pear and  presto  to  reappear  as  a  car-load  of  ropes, 

179 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

hats,  slippers,  baskets  and  cloth,  and  the  ingenuity 
developed  in  the  use  of  the  buri  palm,  would  each 
make  paragraphs  as  adventurous  and  fascinating 
as  any  tale  Jack  London  ever  wrote  of  these  South- 
ern seas. 


180 


Chapter  XI 

CONTENT  AND  PER  CONTRA 

f  I  ^HE  content  of  American  education  in  the  Phil- 
-*■     ippines  is  not  quite  so  eas}^  to  delimit  as  its 
extent,  3'et  it  offers  several  specifications  generally 
applicable. 

Under  the  Spanish  rule  only  a  very  few,  the 
children  of  the  great  families  and  those  in  training 
for  the  priesthood,  were  educated;  and  even  these, 
judged  by  the  present-day  American  standards, 
scarcely  deserve  the  term.  It  can  not  be  claimed 
that  the  Jesuit  colleges  fostered  a  genuine  desire  for 
learning.  Their  students  seldom  pursued  learning 
for  its  own  sake,  but  rather  to  qualify  for  govern- 
ment service  or  the  clerical  profession.  The  old 
education  for  the  ruling  classes  consisted  for  the 
most  part  of  theology  and  literature  through  the 
medium  of  the  Spanish  language,  with  a  smatter- 
ing of  law,  art,  and  music  added.  The  educational 
value   of   the   mediaeval   pliilosophy    and   theology 

181 


IN  rORTS  AFAR 

commonly  in  vogue  is  open  to  question.  The  Latin 
taught  was  that  of  the  Church  "fathers,"  and  the 
horizon  was  hmited  to  the  ecclesiastical  propa- 
ganda. The  young  men  thus  trained  could  not 
know  the  tremendous  economic  waste  involved  in 
the  fact  that  almost  one-fourth  the  property  in 
Spain  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Church ;  that  in 
the  year  1550,  twenty-one  years  before  Legazpi 
founded  Manila,  there  w^ere  in  Spain  58  arch- 
bishops, 684  bishops,  11,400  monasteries,  312,000 
secular  priests,  400,000  ecclesiastics,  and  nuns  in 
like  proportion.  They  held  enormous  amounts  of 
property,  and  even  the  primate  of  the  Spanish 
Church  advised  Philip  II  to  found  no  more  monas- 
teries. The  graduates  of  the  Jesuit  colleges  never 
learned  the  consequences  of  clerical  idleness,  the  ex- 
ploitation of  labor,  which  of  necessity  follows  the 
withdrawal  of  such  a  large  proportion  of  the  wealth 
from  taxation,  and  remained  in  ignorance  of  the 
economic  conditions  of  the  Filipino  people,  know- 
ing neither  the  history  of  the  mother  country,  nor 
the  processes  of  the  government  under  which  they 
lived. 

There  is  another  objection  to  the  purely  literary 
training   which  any   language   furnishes,   namely, 

182 


CONTENT  AND  PER  CONTRA 

the  Inaccuracy  into  which  hterature  often  falls. 
For  example,  take  Macaulay  and  his  judgment 
against  Frederick  the  Great  in  the  matter  of  Se- 
lesia.  The  Heritage-Brotherhood  made  between 
Joachim  II,  Marquis  of  Brandenburg,  and  Fred- 
erick II,  Duke  of  Liegnltz  (Erbverbrilderung), 
was  a  very  common  form  of  pact  among  German 
princes  well  disposed  toward  each  other.  The  right 
of  each  to  dispose  of  their  lands  in  any  manner 
of  way  had  been  saved  entirely  by  each  and  care- 
fully acknowledged.  The  privilege  had  been  con- 
firmed again  and  again.  Emperor  Ferdinand  de- 
terailned  to  prohibit  it,  and  the  Duke  of  Liegnltz, 
under  the  stress  of  kingly  pressure,  was  compelled 
to  submit,  but  went  so  far  as  to  append  a  codicil 
to  his  will,  saying  that  he  considered  the  Heritage- 
Brotherhood  as  valid  and  binding  upon  him  and 
his  duchy,  though  It  had  been  ovei^ruled  by  the 
vassals  of  Bohemia.  The  king  and  emperor  at- 
tempted in  like  manner  to  coerce  the  Brandenburg- 
ers  into  suiTender  of  their  deed,  but  Joachim  II 
and  all  of  his  successors  steadily  refused  to  give  up 
that  bit  of  Avritten  parcliment.  When  the  agree- 
ment became  actionable,  on  the  accession  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  all  of  these  conclusive  proofs  were 

183 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

easily  available,  and  the  English  world  should  have 
understood  it  and  sympathized  accordingly.  Now, 
Lord  Macaulay  was  eloquent  and  literary,  and  much 
in  vogue.  He  was  not  scientific,  nor  accurate,  and 
has  succeeded  in  prejudicing  thousands  of  people 
who  should  have  been  well  affected  toward  the  great 
Gemian  king,  but  for  his  inaccurate  statement  of 
the  merits  of  the  case.  In  the  same  way  thousands 
of  fair-minded  English  people  are  still  filled  with 
indignation  when  they  read  of  the  atrocious  acts 
of  Clive  and  Hastings,  as  related  by  Macaulay,  re- 
counted as  occurring  in  the  conquest  of  India.  No 
suspicion  reaches  their  minds  of  the  truth  that  these 
horrors  never  occurred,  and  yet  they  continue  to 
furnish  an  unfailing  source  of  invective  and  ob- 
loquy. His  brilliant  essays  based  upon  Mill's  in- 
accurate history,  and  Burke's  speeches,  drama 
rather  than  fact,  are  utterly  unreliable.  Men  of 
his  own  generation  investigated  the  original  sources, 
and  eye-witnesses  disproved  and  discredited  every- 
thing but  the  imaginative  work  of  Macaulay. 
Both  are  illustrations  of  the  astounding  inaccura- 
cies into  which  men  of  merely  literary  training  may 
fall.  The  results  of  present-day  magazines  and 
editorial  writing,  saturated  as  they  are  with  poli- 

184 


CONTENT  AND  PER  CONTRA 

tics,  and  by  inference  teaching  that  governments 
are  usually  offensive  and  miserably  unwise,  are  mis- 
chievous in  the  extreme.  The  newspapers  continue 
to  fill  the  Filipino  discussions  with  invectives,  and 
the  "politicos"  who  are  ambitious  for  place,  w^ealth, 
and  pow^er,  with  their  imitative  faculty,  assume 
that  for  the  United  States  to  delay  granting  inde- 
pendence for  a  generation  is  proof  positive  that 
the  President  and  Congress  constitute  a  tyranny 
similar  to  that  of  George  III,  Lord  North,  and  his 
Parliament.  To  quote  Sir  John  Strachey,  on  a 
similar  issue,  "this  sort  of  education  is  dangerous 
fare  for  Asiatic  brains."  Already  the  daily  papers 
are  reporting  that  if  independence  is  delayed  a 
revolutionary  outbreak  is  to  be  expected.  Respect 
for  authority  is  always  hampered  by  the  speeches 
and  writings  of  foolish  and  selfish  political  agi- 
tators. The  strict  and  sober  tests  of  truth,  which 
modern  science  and  economics  alone  can  supply, 
have  heretofore  been  utterly  wanting  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  Filipinos.  This  corrective  is  the  fore- 
most discernible  content  of  American  education  in 
the  islands.  It  is  scientific  and  economic,  and  the 
situation  in  the  islands  echoes  what  Sir  Henry 
Maine  once  said  of  the  English  education  in  India : 

185 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

"The  native  literature  is  supremely  and  deliberately 
careless  of  all  precision  in  magnitude,  number,  and 
time.  ...  It  stands  in  need  beyond  everything 
of  stricter  criteria  of  truth.  It  requires  a  treatment 
to  harden  and  brace  it,  and  scientific  teaching  is 
exactly  the  tonic  its  infirmities  call  for." 

The  American  education  in  the  Philippines  is 
admirable  likewise  in  the  emphasis  it  puts  upon 
manual  labor.  Huxley  has  a  dictum  that  the  dif- 
ference between  the  apes  in  England  and  the  apes 
in  Africa  is  that  the  former  have  a  thumb  oppos- 
able to  four  fingers.  The  hand  that  is  thus  formed, 
the  bodily  variations  unif oraily  associated,  the  sense 
of  touch  and  balance  that  have  developed  with  it, 
make  it  one  of  the  dependent  variables  that  becomes 
a  factor  in  the  differential  that  marks  the  human. 
The  hand  is  the  one  tool  that  man  did  not  make 
for  himself,  and  its  willing  use  is  sure  guide-post 
to  civilization.  As  a  rule  all  tropical  peoples  dis- 
like physical  exertion.  Just  as  in  America  thou- 
sands prefer  clerical  work,  or  some  indoor  employ- 
ment, so  the  Filipinos  want  occupations  that  will 
allow  them  to  wear  clean  duck  clothing  and  work 
with  gloves  on  their  hands.  That  is  the  limit  of 
respectable  toil.     An  expert  in  agriculture  must  be 

186 


CONTENT  AND  PER  CONTRA 

willing,  in  case  of  necessity,  to  work  with  his  hands ; 
a  good  engineer  must  be  master  of  mechanical  arts 
and  ready  to  use  his  hands.  Often  this  is  prohib- 
itive to  the  natives,  who  have  been  trained  by  the 
example  of  the  Spaniards  and  Mestizos  to  rely  on 
literary  culture  and  to  regard  manual  labor  as  de- 
meaning. Handwork  by  the  leaders  is  paramount 
to  the  industrial  development  planned  by  the  civic 
leaders.  It  will  take  regiments  of  engineers,  agri- 
culturists, skilled  mechanics,  and  draughtsmen  to 
reform  the  economic  conditions  of  the  islands. 
Their  efficiencj^  must  be  based  upon  scientific  knowl- 
edge, technical  training,  and  manual  skill.  The 
young  women  show  a  noticeable  backwardness  to 
take  the  domestic  science  courses,  and  the  young 
men  a  reluctance  to  train  for  engineers  and  similar 
occupations.  Young  men  in  the  United  States, 
for  the  most  part,  are  practical  and  eager  to  get  on. 
Temperamentally  they  are  unfitted  for  the  slow, 
plodding  ways  and  years  that  are  essential  to  mak- 
ing genuine  scholars;  they  take  the  short  cut  to 
success  by  tools  and  mechanisms.  The  educational 
problem  at  home  is  to  make  them  see  that  a  mere 
handling  of  tools  can  not  make  the  mechanical  en- 
gineer who  conceives  great  manufacturing  enter- 

187 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

prises,  stupendous  public  works,  and  carries  them 
forward  to  completion.  He  needs  to  look  for  the 
mentality  and  sentiment  with  which  to  equip  his 
imagination  and  enlarge  the  horizon  of  his  concep- 
tions. But  in  the  Philippines  the  problem  is  to  get 
a  whole  generation  to  learn  that  breadth  of  percep- 
tion and  the  higher  viewpoint  is  dependent  for  final 
efficiency  on  practical  adaptation :  on  ability  to  illus- 
trate the  control  of  materials  by  the  use  of  tools 
as  books.  It  is  part  ignorance,  but  also  part  in- 
dolence. The  Philippine  education  proceeds  on  the 
assumption  that  product  of  the  brain  multiplied 
by  the  hand,  not  the  square  of  the  brain  or  the 
hand,  approximates  the  liighest  human  capacity. 
This  underlies  the  whole  educational  system.  Pri- 
mary, grade,  and  liigh  school  instiniction  are 
planned  to  undermine  the  prejudice  against  work 
and  to  excite  all  to  prepare  for  some  gainful  occu- 
pation by  the  rewards  of  labor  and  the  avenues  to 
leadership  which  the  system  affords  to  those  with 
manual  training. 

The  moral  content  is  not  so  certainly  praise- 
worthy. There  is  no  use  in  discussing  whether  the 
government  could  do  otherwise  than  hold  itself 
rigidly  aloof  from  all  concern  with  religious  edu- 

188 


CONTENT  AND  PER  CONTRA 

cation;  but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
educational  advances  have  been  on  the  intellectual 
rather  than  on  the  moral  side.  The  Filipino  past 
has  not  been  favorable  to  the  cultivation  of  civic 
or  ecclesiastic  virtue,  and  we  can  not  but  feel  that 
it  would  have  been  politically  wise  to  show  interest 
and  S3"mpathy  with  the  habits  of  thought  and  cus- 
toms that  are  inseparably  associated  with  the  Puri- 
tan forbears. 

The  American  occupation  has  not  taken  the 
American  Sabbath  to  the  Philippines.  That  tall, 
white  angel,  the  Holy  Day  of  Protestantism,  has 
been  overwhelmed  by  the  continental  holiday  of 
France,  Italy,  and  Spain.  Education,  daily  pa- 
pers, athletics,  amusements,  roadways,  and  means 
of  conveyance  have  all  been  made  to  conform  to 
American  ideas.  Even  the  beautiful,  stately 
"rigadone,"  the  pure,  popular,  and  approvable 
dance  of  the  Philippines,  is  going  into  desuetude, 
displaced  by  the  waltz,  two-step,  and  turkey  trot. 
But  civil  government  officials,  army  officers,  Amer- 
ican tourists,  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal  clergy 
have  conformed  to  usage,  not  helped  to  transform, 
according  to  ideal,  and  a  nation  without  the  Sab- 
bath is  forthcoming. 

189 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

The  reasons  are  not  far  to  seek.  The  Sabbath 
with  the  Roman  church  has  been  a  day  of  worsliip 
in  its  few  early  hours,  and  a  holiday  for  the  late 
forenoon,  afternoon,  and  evening.  By  reason  of 
the  climate,  the  Catholic  church  services  are  held 
as  early  as  5  and  6  o'clock.  In  the  Jesuit  Church 
in  Manila  a  later  service  is  held,  but  among  the 
native  populations  all  over  the  islands  the  religious 
services  are  ended  by  8  o'clock  in  the  forenoon. 
That  is  before  the  average  American  has  break- 
fasted and  read  his  morning  paper.  In  the  army 
at  times  the  pressure  of  events  makes  anything  but 
a  holiday  impossible.  Usually  there  is  no  chaplain, 
and  where  there  is  an  English  service,  unless  some 
major  or  colonel  sets  a  rigid  example  and  himself 
attends  it,  the  meeting  goes  by  default  so  far  as 
the  rank  and  file  are  concerned.  The  heads  of  the 
insular  government,  from  Ex-President  Taft  down, 
have  not  been  given  to  Sabbath  keeping  in  the  evan- 
gelical sense,  and  the  Bureau  of  education,  to  con- 
trovert the  cock-fighting  habits  of  the  people,  have 
been  encouraging  baseball,  volley  ball,  and  basket 
ball  games  on  Sunday  afternoon.  The  gi^eat  Manila 
Eight-Day  Carnival  starts  in  on  Saturday,  so  as  to 
run  over  two  Sundays.     Under  the  circumstances, 

190 


CONTENT  AND  PER  CONTRA 

perhaps,    we    ought   to   be   satisfied   that   baseball 
games  are  usually  scheduled  for  Sunday  afternoon. 

Major-General  Bell  forbade  the  regimental  teams 
from  playing  polo  on  Sunday,  and  the  Greek  audi- 
torium, which  he  caused  to  be  built  at  Camp  John 
Hay,  gives  opportunity  for  great  religious  gather- 
ings while  the  capital  is  at  Baguio. 

The  English  in  Egypt,  Straits  Settlements,  In- 
dia, and  China  do  better  than  the  Americans  are 
doing  in  the  Philippines.  If  they  do  not  trans- 
form, at  least  they  do  not  conform.  The  English 
red-coats,  semper  uhique,  line  up  for  service  at 
the  establishment,  or  at  the  nonconformist  Church 
of  liis  selection,  every  Sunday  morning.  Usually 
there  is  a  volunteer  service  at  the  barracks  in  the 
evening.  One  of  the  pleasures  of  an  American  on 
a  circumnavigating  tour  is  to  be  invited  by  some 
major  or  captain  to  speak  to  the  men  perhaps  as 
late  as  9  o'clock  in  the  evening.  There  you  may 
hear  four  or  five  hundred  men  sing  the  great  hymns 
of  the  Church,  and  they  always  listen  attentively. 
On  all  the  English  boats  the  captain  reads  the  serv- 
ice Sunday  morning,  and  after  repeated  hearings 
we  confess  to  liking  it,  and  thinking  it  exceedingly 
fit  and  appropriate. 

191 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

We  are  launched  on  such  an  adventure  in  the 
Phihppincs  as  our  fathers  could  not  have  foreseen. 
In  all  details,  save  in  this  of  the  Sabbath,  the  ex- 
periment has  been  conducted  with  such  dignity  and 
capacity  as  to  render  it  unique  in  colonizing  an- 
nals. We  would  that  it  might  have  this  added 
grace.  To  keep  one  day  for  meditation,  prayer, 
and  the  assembling  of  ourselves  together  has  seemed 
important  to  Christianity  from  its  very  beginning. 
There  is  something  in  the  formality,  as  England 
has  learned.  The  Filipino  peoples  are  Christian, 
and  at  present  they  are  American.  We  owe  it  to 
our  Pacific  neighbors,  the  Chinese  and  Japanese, 
and  to  our  wards  for  the  time  being,  the  Filipinos, 
to  conform  officially  to  Protestant  type  and  set 
them  an  example  of  Sabbath  observance.  Let  the 
Sabbath  peace  and  quiet  perv^ade  the  islands  "like 
the  sweet  presence  of  a  good  diffused,  making  the 
world  fairer,  life  nobler,  and  the  people  themselves 
more  reverent  and  more  righteous." 


192 


Chapter  XII 

THE  FOURTEENTH  AMEND:\IENT  IN 
THE  PHILIPPINES 

WHEN  Dean  C.  Worcester,  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  for  the  Phihppine  Commission, 
pubHshed  his  report  on  "Slavery  and  Peonage," 
he  issued  an  indictment  against  the  Phihppine  As- 
sembly, showed  the  utter  unreliability  of  Senor 
Manuel  Quezon,  the  Territorial  representative  in 
Congress,  and  assured  his  own  dismissal  from  pub- 
lic service  in  the  islands.  The  Filipino  leaders  have 
long  been  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  "unpopu- 
larity" of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and  yet  to 
him  the  country  is  indebted  for  a  clear,  straight- 
forward statement  of  a  situation  and  knowledge  of 
acts  against  which  the  Philippine  Commission  long 
since  decreed  penalties.  His  "unpopularity"  will 
be  fully  appreciated  when  it  is  kno\\Ti  that  Senor 
Quezon  has  loudly  and  recklessly  raised  the  claim 
13  193 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

that  there  was   no  such  thing  as  slavery   in   the 
provinces,  as  follows : 

"As  a  Filipino  familiar  with  the  facts  in  the  case, 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  qualify  the  letter  of  Secretary 
Worcester  as  being  at  once  false  and  slanderous. 
It  is  false,  because  there  does  not  exist  slavery  in 
the  Philippines,  or  at  least  in  that  part  of  the  coun- 
try subject  to  the  authority  of  the  Pliilippine  As- 
sembly. It  is  slanderous  because  it  presents  the 
Philippine  Assembly  by  innuendo,  if  not  openly, 
as  a  body  which  countenances  slavery. 

"Since  there  is  not,  and  there  never  was,  slavery 
in  the  territory  inhabited  by  the  Christian  Fili- 
pinos, which  is  the  part  of  the  Islands  subject  to 
the  legislative  control  of  the  Assembly,  this  House 
has  refused  to  concur  in  the  anti-slavery  bill  passed 
by  the  Philippine  Commission." 

Palawan  is  one  of  the  provinces  "subject  to  the 
authority  of  the  Philippine  Assembly."  It  is  pos- 
sible that  Senor  Quezon  is  so  ignorant  of  conditions 
there  as  to  be  unaware  of  the  indisputable  fact  that 
the  Moros  of  that  province  held  slaves  until  com- 
pelled to  give  them  up  by  a  provincial  government 
carried  on  under  the  administrative  control  of  an 
American  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  but  if  so,  he 

194 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

has  no  rightful  claim  to  be  a  "Filipino  familiar 
with  the  facts." 

Isabela  is  a  province  "subject  to  the  authority 
of  the  Philippine  Assembly."  It  differs  from  Pala- 
wan in  that  the  large  majority  of  its  inhabitants 
are  Christian  Filipinos,  and  in  the  further  fact  that 
it  is  organized  under  the  Provincial  Goverament 
Act,  and  is  therefore  not  in  any  way  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

Slavery  has  been  common  in  this  province  from 
the  beginning  of  historic  times,  and  it  is  common 
there  to-day.  Its  occurrence  is  admitted,  and  the 
conditions  under  which  it  prevails  are  described  in  a 
report  by  a  fellow  countryman  of  Senor  Quezon, 
Senor  Francisco  Dishoso,  who  was  governor  of  the 
province  when  he  made  it  on  September  9,  1903. 

The  history  of  this  interesting  and  important 
document  is  briefly  as  follows:  On  April  28,  1903, 
the  senior  inspector  of  constabulary  in  Isabela 
wired  the  first  district  chief  of  constabulary,  Ma- 
nila, that : 

"In  this  province  it  is  a  common  practice  to 
own  slaves.  These  are  bought  by  proprietaries 
(property  owners. — D.  C.  W.)  from  Igorrotes  and 
Calingas   who  steal  same   in   distant  places   from 

195 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

other  tribes.  Young  boys  and  girls  are  bought  at 
about  100  pesos,  men  30  years  old  and  old  women 
cheaper.  When  bought,  are  generally  christened 
and  put  to  work  on  ranch  or  in  house,  and  I  think 
generally  well  treated.  In  this  town  a  number  sold 
within  last  few  months,  and  as  reported  to  me. 
Governor  has  bought  tlii'ee.  Shall  I  investigate 
further.'^     Instructions  desired. 

"(Signed)      Sorenson." 

The  further  explanation  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  being  "unpopular"  may  be  found  in 
the  recommendation  he  made  at  the  end  of  the  fiscal 
year,  June  30,  1912,  as  follows: 

"That  for  the  adequate  protection  of  the  non- 
Christian  tribes  a  final  and  earnest  effort  be  made 
to  secure  the  concurrence  of  the  Philippine  Assem- 
bly in  the  passage  for  the  territory  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Philippine  Legislature  of  an  Act 
identical  with,  or  similar  to,  Act  No.  2071,  entitled, 
'An  Act  prohibiting  slavery,  involuntary  servitude, 
peonage,  and  the  sale  or  purchase  of  human  be- 
ings in  the  Mountain  Province  and  the  Provinces 
of  Nueva  Viscaya  and  Agusan,  and  providing  pun- 
ishment therefor,  and  that  in  the  event  of  failure, 
the  attention  of  Congress  be  called  to  this  impor- 
tant matter  to  the  end  that  it  may  pass  adequate 

196 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

legislation  if  it  deems  such  a  course  in  the  public 
interest." 

The  bill  was  tabled  by  the  Assembly  on  Janu- 
ary 8,  1913,  and  Secretary  Worcester  made  his 
appeal  to  the  Congress  at  Washington.  The  new 
governor-general  in  his  first  speech  on  arrival  at 
Manila  promised  that  the  Filipinos  were  at  once 
to  be  given  a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  In- 
sular Commission,  and  reports  of  the  appointment 
of  a  new  committee  to  "investigate"  were  again 
made.  Meanwhile  Congressional  attention  had  been 
fixed  upon  this  enormity,  and  the  decisions  of  the 
Filipino  courts  were  read  by  American  lawyers. 

The  decision  in  the  Tomas  Cabanag  case  is  as 
follows : 

"The  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  declared 
that  human  slavery  shall  not  exist  in  these  Islands, 
and  while  no  law,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  has  yet 
been  passed  either  defining  slavery  in  these  Islands 
or  affixing  a  punishment  for  those  who  engage  in 
these  inhuman  practices  as  dealers,  buyers,  sellers, 
or  derivers,  the  facts  established  in  this  case  show 
conclusively  that  the  child  Jimaya  was  by  the  de- 
fendant forcibly  and  by  fraud,  deceit,  and  threats, 
unlawfully  deprived  of  her  liberty,  and  that  his 
object  and  purpose   was  an  unlawful  and  illegal 

197 


IN  rORTS  AFAR 

one,  to  wit,  the  sale  of  the  child  for  money  -into 
human  slavery.  This  constitutes  the  crime  of 
illegal  detention  defined  and  penalized  by  article 
481  of  the  Penal  Code,  and  tliis  court  finds  the  de- 
fendant guilty  as  charged  in  the  information." 

On  appeal  from  the  judgment  of  the  court  of 
first  instance  by  the  defendant,  although  it  was 
conclusively  shown  that  the  child  Jimaya  had 
been  forcibly  taken  from  the  possession  of  her 
gi'andmother  Oltagon,  who  was  exercising  lawful 
and  proper  guardianship  of  the  child,  and  that 
the  child  was  sold  to  a  certain  Mareano  Lopez,  yet 
the  appellate  court  held  that  the  acts  complained 
of  did  not  constitute  a  crime  and  could  not  be  prose- 
cuted witliin  the  realm  of  criminal  law  without  an 
act  of  Legislature.  The  language  of  the  court  is 
herewith  appended : 

"To  sum  up  this  case,  there  is  no  proof  of  slavery 
or  even  of  involuntary  ser\dtude,  inasmuch  as  it 
has  not  been  clearly  shown  that  the  child  has  been 
disposed  of  against  the  will  of  her  grandmother 
or  has  been  taken  altogether  out  of  her  control. 
If  the  facts  in  this  respect  be  interpreted  other- 
wise, there  is  no  lam  applicable  here,  either  of  the 
United  States  or  of  the  Archipelago,  punishing 
slavery  as  a  crime.     The  child  was  not  physically 

198 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

confined  or  restrained  so  as  to  sustain  a  conviction 
for  illegal  detention,  nor  are  the  acts  of  the  accused 
brought  within  any  of  the  provisions  of  the  law  for 
the  punishment  of  offenses  against  minors;  conse- 
quently the  conviction  in  this  case  must  be  reversed, 
in  accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  the  at- 
torney-general, with  costs  de  oflciOf  and  the  pris- 
oner is  acquitted." 

This  decision  allowed  native  judges  in  courts  of 
the  first  instance  all  the  latitude  they  required  in 
order  to  conform  to  the  wishes  of  the  cacique. 

Then  the  great  religious  weeklies  of  the  country 
began  to  speak;  an  article  in  the  Christian  Ad- 
vocate bearing  upon  the  subject  was  sent  direct  to 
the  President,  and  forthwith,  to  the  great  credit 
of  the  new  Administration,  the  penal  clauses  were 
enacted  by  the  Philippine  Assembly.  It  was  not 
self-government,  rather  it  was  government  from 
Washington ;  but  it  was  a  moral  issue,  upon  which 
no  one,  much  less  the  President,  would  hesitate  for 
one  moment.  Perhaps  the  new  governor-general, 
crediting  as  he  does  his  appointment  to  Senor 
Quezon,  could  not  do  less  than  dismiss  a  man  who 
would  unhesitatingly  blurt  out  the  truth,  even  in 
the  face  of  the  Territorial  representative,  who  be- 

199 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

longs  to  the  dominant  party,  and  who  is  eager  to 
be  tlie  head  of  the  new  RepubHc,  in  his  opinion 
about  to  be  estabhshed.  That  men  of  his  class  and 
character  will  control  in  any  government  estab- 
lished, is  the  tremendou-s  and  unassailable  argument 
for  maintaining  the  status  quo. 

The  existence  of  slavery  and  peonage  for  several 
centuries  in  the  Islands  is  the  greatest  single  prob- 
lem confronting  the  Government  in  its  attempt  to 
build  up  in  the  Islands  a  respectable  and  respon- 
sible electorate  through  whom  responsible  govern- 
ment may  be  established.  The  situation  grows  out 
of  the  ancient  regime.  Then  the  king,  don,  baron, 
cacique,  or  boss  had  the  right  to  any  and  all  kinds 
of  service  from  his  retainers.  They  tilled  his  fields, 
ran  his  errands,  and  submitted  to  his  caprices  in 
every  particular.  The  degeneracy  of  this  titular 
lord,  and  the  deterioration  of  whole  peoples  thereby 
resulting,  is  too  well  known  to  the  sociologists  to 
need  statement.  This  feudal  lord  persisted  in  the 
Philippines  until  the  American  occupation,  has  per- 
sisted since  that  time  until  now,  without  the  con- 
sent or  knowledge  of  the  American  people,  and, 
unless  the  electorate  are  intelligent  and  persistent 
in  their  watch  of  Filipino  events,  is  likely  long  to 

200 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

continue.  Even  with  all  the  restraints  of  law  a 
weak  and  degraded  people,  not  knowing  their 
rights,  and  powerless  to  enforce  them  against  the 
customs  and  precedents  of  hundreds  of  years,  would 
long  remain  enslaved  in  fact,  if  free  in  name. 

The  multiplicity  of  cases  requires  an  explana- 
tion. They  are  about  as  follows :  A  man  in  petty 
financial  straits  would  borrow  ten  or  fifteen  pesos, 
giving  as  securit}^  for  the  repayment  of  the  money 
his  boy,  more  frequentl}^  his  girl,  age  from  twelve 
to  sixteen  years.  The  pawn  changed  residence  and 
worked  for  the  lender  until  the  debt  was  paid.  As 
is  often  the  case  in  America,  the  debt  increased 
rather  than  diminished.  Perhaps  the  girl  or  girls 
disappeared.  It  happened  that  way  often.  That 
ended  the  obligation,  and  the  debt  was  canceled. 
Or  suppose  it  was  a  boy,  and  he  ran  away. 
Trumped-up  charges  of  theft,  larceny,  or  assault 
were  filed  against  him,  and  over  to  Bilibid,  the 
State's  prison,  he  went,  unless  he  was  willing  to 
return  to  work.  There  were  a  discreditable  number 
of  Filipino  judges  of  the  first  instance  who  were 
ready  to  oblige  a  cacique  in  such  a  simple  matter. 
The  length  to  which  these  cases  go  is  maddening. 
There  is  one  where  the  poor  Filipino  was  protected 

201 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

by  the  laws  passed  by  the  Philippine  Commission 
for  the  non-Christian  provinces.  To  evade  this 
protection  the  poor  fellow  was  baptized ;  the  can- 
didate was  willing  to  receive  baptism  in  the  hope 
that  it  would  better  his  condition,  and  the  owner 
an'anged  it  on  the  supposition  that  the  lack  of 
law  for  the  Christian  provinces  would  hold  after 
the  slave  was  baptized.  And  it  did  avail  until  the 
appellate  court  ruled  that  the  mere  act  of  baptizing 
a  provincial  heathen  did  not  cost  him  the  protection 
of  the  law  for  the  non-Christian  provinces. 

The  refusal  of  the  Filipino  Assembly  four  times 
to  pass  these  bills  is  a  sure  index  of  the  actual  state 
of  affairs.  It  is  easy,  therefore,  to  understand 
the  solicitude  with  which  men  conversant  with  Fili- 
pino affairs  view  the  granting  of  a  majority  in 
the  Philippine  Commission  to  the  natives.  The 
present  Legislature  consists  of  two  Houses,  an  As- 
sembly of  eighty-four  Filipino  members,  represent- 
ing thirty-four  provinces,  and  the  Philippine  Com- 
mission, an  appointive  body  of  nine  members.  Five 
of  these  latter  have  hitherto  been  Americans,  all  of 
whom,  except  the  governor-general,  have  held  ad- 
ministrative portfolios.  The  two  Houses  have  equal 
power;  either  may  initiate  a  bill,  but  affirmative 

202 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

action  is  required  by  both  in  order  to  pass  a  bill. 
It  is  evident  that  before  so  vital  a  change  was 
made  there  should  have  been  a  careful  studv  of 
the  bills  passed  by  the  Assembl}',  and  refused  pas- 
sage by  the  Commission,  and  likewise  the  bills 
passed  by  the  Commission  and  refused  passage  by 
the  Assembly.  The  one  passed  by  the  Commission 
and  four  times  refused  passage  by  the  Assembly 
concerning  peonage  and  slavery  has  already  been 
referred  to.  There  are  others  emanating  from  the 
Assembly  and  refused  passage  by  the  Commission 
because  they  were  dangerous,  some  even  imperiling 
the  stability  and  effectiveness  of  the  Government. 

Then  the  original  Act  of  Congress  retained  for 
the  Commission  exclusive  authoritv  over  the  non- 
Christian  tribes,  who  had  been  the  greatest  sufferers 
by  peonage  and  slavery.  It  was  unquestionably 
the  purpose  of  the  Congress  to  keep  the  control  of 
these  more  than  a  million  unoffending,  backward 
people  in  the  hands  of  those  who  could  be  relied 
upon  neither  to  exploit  them  nor  to  delay  their 
progress  to  civilized  equality. 

Heretofore  it  has  been  the  policy  to  give  these 
wild  tribesmen  and  the  poor  Filipinos  who  make 
up  the  bulk  of  the  population  all  possible  aid  in 

203 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

securing  homesteads  and  in  the  purchase  of  the 
small  tracts  with  which  they  wTre  satisfied.  The 
policy  of  the  Government  has  been  to  help  all  to 
become  landholders.  But  the  rich  ilhistrados,  or 
landholders,  do  not  want  this  to  occur.  They  pre- 
fer that  these  people  should  remain  tenants  on  their 
large  holdings,  practically  in  a  state  of  peonage. 
They  have  heretofore  sought  to  mislead  the  people 
as  to  their  rights,  and  have  opposed  them  when  they 
souffht  free  homesteads.  One  of  the  first  removals 
ordered  by  the  new  governor-general  was  that  of 
Captain  Sleeper,  who  had  greatly  interested  him- 
self in  instructing  the  poor  and  ignorant  as  to  their 
rights,  and  assisting  them  to  maintain  those  rights. 
By  so  doing  the  captain  had  made  himself  ex- 
tremely unpopular  with  the  rich  landholders,  and 
his  successor,  a  Filipino,  will  find  it  exceedingly 
hard  to  stand  up  against  the  pressure  brought  by 
these  men.  The  Friar  lands,  which  have  been  fre- 
quently mentioned  in  America,  are  under  the  con- 
trol of  this  same  bureau,  and,  as  in  th^  case  of  the 
public  lands,  w^ealthy  Filipinos  wi'ongfully  claim 
these  lands  and  have  repeatedly  tried  to  prevent 
poor  people  from  purchasing  holdings  therein, 
thus  keeping  them  tenants   on  their  own   estates. 

204 


THE  FOURTEENTH  A.AIENDAIENT 

These  lands  are  plainly  the  best  in  the  Islands. 
The  Filipino  appointed  to  this  great  office  says  he 
knows  nothing  about  it,  and  every  true  friend  of 
democracy  must  view  with  the  gi'avest  concern  the 
placing  of  such  a  trust  in  the  hands  of  a  man 
avowedly  ignorant  of  his  duties.  The  office  to 
which  he  has  been  appointed  is  the  single  barrier 
between  a  rich  and  autocratic  land-holding  class 
and  millions  of  weak,  poor,  and  ignorant  Filipinos, 
whose  efforts  to  improve  their  condition  have  been 
long  viewed  with  disgust.  Irreparable  damage  is 
sure  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  work  of  this  bureau. 
The  removals  were  strictly  political,  and  on  the 
authority  of  Dr.  D.  C.  Worcester  (we  quote  from 
him  as  reported  in  the  Manila  Cable  News)  :  "I  was 
informed  that  the  governor-general  had  cabled 
Washington  for  advice  as  to  how  far  he  could  go 
with  removals  without  violating  the  letter  of  the 
Philippine  service  act.  While  en  route  to  the 
Islands  he  gave  out  an  interview  in  which  he  stated 
in  effect  that  for  years  he  had  seen  Democrats 
badly  treated  as  such,  and  took  sardonic  pleasure 
in  now  being  able  to  accord  similar  treatment  to 
the  Republicans."  Nothing  seems  to  be  wanting 
to  justify  the  mot  passed  around  to  the  effect  that 

205 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

"the  day  Tammany  Hall  lost  control  in  New  York 
City  it  acquired  control  in  Manila."  Hitherto  the 
Philippine  service  has  been  remarkably  free  from 
such  spoilsmen ;  nobody  has  stopped  to  inquire 
what  were  the  politics  of  any  governor-general  or 
other  official.  Two  of  the  governor-generals  were 
Democrats,  and  the  head  of  the  bureau  of  education 
upon  the  arrival  of  the  present  governor-general 
was  a  Democrat.  It  is  only  proper  that  the  gov- 
ernor-general should  have  men  in  the  highest  admin- 
istrative offices  in  full  sympathy  with  his  political 
views,  but  the  removal  of  expert  bureau  chiefs, 
who  are  occupied  with  the  efficient  and  economic 
performance  of  the  work  of  the  Government,  will 
result  in  quick  disaster. 

With  the  reductions  of  salaries  affecting  Ameri- 
cans,  and  the  refusal  to  allow  leave  of  absence, 
customary  so  as  to  allow  the  return  of  the  em- 
ployees to  America,  we  have  little  to  say.  The 
bureau  of  printing  will  illustrate  the  method  of 
displacing  men  by  salary  reduction.  This  bureau 
had  always  been  a  matter  of  pride  to  the  insular 
government.  The  director  had  from  the  outset  used 
it  as  an  opportunity  for  training  the  Filipinos, 
making  it  a   great  industrial   school,   and   fitting 

206 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

many  young  men  for  remunerative  employment. 
Ninety-five  per  cent  of  those  emplo^'ed  were  Fili- 
pinos. With  the  arrival  of  the  new  governor- 
general  inimors  of  sweeping  reductions  in  salary 
became  cuiTent,  and  some  Americans  entitled  to 
promotion  became  alaiTned,  and  after  consulting 
the  director  sent  a  telegram  to  the  President,  pro- 
testing against  such  reduction,  and  without  consult- 
ing the  director  sent  another  telegram  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Assembl3^  For  this  the  director  was 
summarily  removed.  Nor  can  this  be  credited,  as 
some  try  to  assume,  to  the  influence  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  Father  Algue,  the  famous  di- 
rector of  the  Island  weather  bureau,  appeared 
before   the   Upper   Assembly    and   in   an   address 


The  statement  in  the  last  sentence  on  page 
207  is  in  error.  At  this  date  there  are  fifteen 
American  Veterinarians  on  dutv  in  the  Islands. 


207 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

"the  day  Tammany  Hall  lost  control  In  New  York 
City  it  acquired  control  in  Manila."  Hitherto  the 
Philij)pine  service  has  been  remarkably  free  from 
such  spoilsmen ;  nobody  has  stopped  to  inquire 
what  were  the  politics  of  any  governor-general  or 
other  official.  Two  of  the  governor-generals  were 
Democrats,  and  the  head  of  the  bureau  of  education 
upon  the  amval  of  the  present  governor-general 
was  a  Democrat.  It  is  only  proper  that  the  gov- 
ernor-general should  have  men  in  the  highest  admin- 
istrative offices  in  full  sympathy  with  his  political 
views,  but  the  removal  of  expert  bureau  chiefs, 
who  are  occupied  with  the  efficient  and  economic 
performance  of  the  work  of  the  Government,  will 
result  in  Quick  disaster. 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

many  3'oung  men  for  remunerative  employment. 
Ninety-five  per  cent  of  those  employed  were  Fili- 
pinos. With  the  an'ival  of  the  new  governor- 
general  rumors  of  sweeping  reductions  in  salary 
became  cuiTent,  and  some  Americans  entitled  to 
promotion  became  alarmed,  and  after  consulting 
the  director  sent  a  telegram  to  the  President,  pro- 
testing against  such  reduction,  and  without  consult- 
ing the  director  sent  another  telegram  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Assembly.  For  this  the  director  was 
summarily  removed.  Nor  can  this  be  credited,  as 
some  try  to  assume,  to  the  influence  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  Father  Algue,  the  famous  di- 
rector of  the  Island  weather  bureau,  appeared 
before  the  Upper  Assembly  and  in  an  address 
characterized  by  dignity  and  force  showed  how 
destinictive  of  efficiency  and  unfortunate  in  its  ef- 
fects would  be  the  adoption  of  the  Assembly's  pro- 
posals for  sweeping  salary  reductions  to  the  expert 
Americans  employed  by  the  Insular  Government. 
Economy  is  always  in  order,  but  irresponsible 
slashing  can  continue  only  with  serious  danger. 
The  last  three  American  veterinarians  have  just 
left  the  Islands,  and  the  fight  against  rinderpest 
is  wholly  in  native  control. 

207 


IN  PORTS  AFAll 

The  recent  Filiplnization  of  the  Manila  streets 
is  illustrative  of  the  seething  disorder  in  the  leaders 
of  the  people.  On  a  certain  day  at  the  meeting 
of  the  municipal  board,  Sr.  Arellano  introduced 
tJie  following  interesting  and  unique  communica- 
tion to  his  fellow  members: 

"I  have  the  honor  to  submit  to  your  considera- 
tion, in  interpretation  of  the  vehement  desires  of 
the  Filipino  people,  in  order  to  do  honor  to  its 
illustrious  men  as  an  example  to  present  and  future 
generations,  the  changes  of  the  names  of  the  fol- 
lowing streets;" 

and  following  with  the  change  of  the  names  oi 
eleven  streets.  The  name  given  to  one  was  that  of 
a  Filipino  priest.  Padre  Burgos,  who,  in  company 
with  two  others,  was  garroted  by  the  Spaniards 
in  1872 ;  another  name  assigned  was  that  of  Andres 
Bonifacio,  the  founder  of  the  Ratipunan  Society, 
while  a  third  was  that  of  General  Luna,  a  leading 
figure  after  Aguinaldo  in  the  insuiTection,  which 
cost  so  many  American  lives.  The  confusion  oc- 
casioned by  such  lightning  changes  in  a  city  like 
Manila  may  well  be  understood.  It  is  indicative  of 
the  ferment  going  on  in  the  minds  of  a  mestizo 
people,  not  needing  more  government  by  the  men 

208 


THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

who  have  exploited  them,  but  by  those  who  will  not 
be  a  party  to  their  exploitation.     It  is 

"The  cry  of  those  ye  humor, 
How  slowly   toward   the  light." 

It  matters  little  who  is  the  governor-general,  but 
every  time  an  earnest  American  is  displaced,  un- 
less there  is  a  competent  Filipino  to  take  his  place, 
whether  the  displacement  comes  through  direct  re- 
moval or  by  the  reduction  of  his  salary  beyond  the 
living  rate,  is  aiding  to  rivet  again  those  fetters 
of  prejudice  and  ignorance  upon  which  serfdom 
is  based,  and  is  serring  to  undo  the  work  which 
America  has  undertaken  in  the  Islands.  Our 
American  experience  in  what  we  are  wont  to  call 
"reconstiniction"  should  advise  us  that  the  men  who 
enforce  the  law  need  to  be  looked  to  as  well  as 
the  law  itself.  The  Assembly  has  accomplished 
a  late  but  gi'eat  justice  b}^  its  penal  clauses  making 
effective  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  As  Bishop 
Oldham  has  said,  "Cust ombre  is  the  most  power- 
ful and  dominating  word  in  the  uneducated  Fili- 
pino's vocabulary."  The  same  is  true  of  the  Jefe 
and  Ilustrado.  They  rely  upon  it  to  continue  in- 
justice. Now  to  persuade  these  latter  that  such 
14  209 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

practices  arc  inhuman,  and  to  abandon  them,  not 
because  they  are  brutally  forbidden  by  law,  but 
because  they  freely  elect  to  do  them  no  longer; 
and  to  persuade  the  former  that  they  act  un- 
worthily when  they  consent  to  serve  as  peons  and 
slaves,  and  that  intelligence,  self-support,  and 
self-control  are  the  sure  steps  to  independence,  is 
the  romantic  objective  toward  which  the  American 
occupation  should  strive.  Until  this  appreciation 
of  personal  rights  and  interests  is  largely  shared 
by  all  the  people,  and  until  the  dangers  inhering 
in  further  exploitation  of  the  people  is  fully  real- 
ized by  the  wealthier  classes,  the  presence  of  more, 
not  less,  American  teachers,  bureau  officials,  clergy- 
men, and  technical  experts  is  needed  in  the  Islands. 


210 


Chapter  XIII 

FUNERAL,  FEAST,  AND  FUNCTION 

T  I  iHE  seven  hundred  thousand  IgoiTotes,  If ugaos, 
•*•  and  related  tribes  in  the  Mountain  Province 
of  Luzon  have  made  great  progress  since  the  Amer- 
ican occupation.  War,  pestilence,  and  famine — 
the  three  checks  on  growth  of  population — have 
been  brought  under  practical  control  by  the  Amer- 
icans. These  mountain  natives  are  fitted  for  indus- 
trial control  and  agricultural  occupations,  and  are 
the  principal  laborers  for  railroad  construction. 
They  are  unique  in  their  wearing  apparel,  funerals, 
and  feasts.  The  G-string  is  simplicity  of  dress  re- 
duced  to  a  minimum,  and  but  for  the  wild  barbari- 
ties of  feasts  and  funerals,  might  pass  for  economy 
and  frugality  on  the  part  of  these  simple-hearted 
folk  unskillful  with  needle  and  loom. 

Of  course  w^e  attended  the  Annual  Canyao — 
Igorrote  for  feast — given  by  the  Country  Club  at 
Baguio,  where  four  tribes  vied  in  their  dances; 
where  rice  and  fish  were  served  by  kettles-full  to 

211 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

the  natives,  and  salad  and  sandwiches  to  the  army 
officers,  educators,  and  civilians.  They  call  that 
a  canyao,  adopting  the  native  word;  but  after 
all  it  is  an  American  social  function,  and  not  even 
a  parody  upon  the  genuine  native  feast. 

The  Teachers^  Assembly  Herald  on  the  day  of 
our  arrival  in  Baguio  recounted  that  the  funeral 
of  a  distinguished  Igorrote  would  soon  occur,  as 
his  body  had  already  been  smoked  for  twenty-six 
days.  He  was  a  man  of  years  and  property.  At 
least  two  of  his  grandsons  are  attending  school  in 
the  United  States.  The  body,  which  was  to  be  in- 
terred, had  on  decease  been  elevated  to  a  sitting 
position  on  a  rude  frame,  some  six  feet  high,  and 
a  slow  fire  to  the  degree  of  a  smudge  kept  under- 
neath for  almost  four  weeks.  The  body  was  dried, 
smoked,  and  shriveled,  and  ghastly  and  giTiesome  it 
awaited  rude  interment.  Meanwhile  the  mourners 
ate  the  swine,  goats,  and  dogs  of  the  estate.  Those 
who  know  what  a  funeral  in  Massachusetts  or 
Pennsylvania  was  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
will  speak  with  hesitation  in  calling  it  a  barbarity 
in  the  mountain  provinces  of  Luzon.  Our  own 
gi'eat-grandsires  were  those  sepultured. 

Perhaps  eight  hours  elapsed  between  the  funeral 

212 


FUNERAL,  FEAST,  AND  FUNCTION 

and  the  feast,  and  no  doubt  that  a  majority  of 
those  who  feasted  at  the  canyao  had  mourned  at  the 
funeral.  ^Meanwhile  our  party — the  second  assist- 
ant of  the  bureau  of  education,  who  had  assigned 
himself  as  guide  and  interpreter;  a  major  in  the 
constabulary,  the  professor  of  History"  in  Columbia 
University,  and  his  wife,  with  others — had  visited 
a  locally  celebrated  missionar}^  school  whose  indus- 
trial work  was  on  display  and  for  sale  at  the  Teach- 
ers' Conference  camp.  After  fifteen  kilometers  of 
horseback  riding  we  came,  as  the  sun  was  rapidly 
sinking  beyond  the  mountain  to  the  ocean,  to  a 
tent  pitched  about  300  ^^ards  from  the  highway, 
about  which  an  aggregation  of  swine,  dogs,  goats, 
and  mourners  from  the  funeral  were  gathered.  We 
were  offered  hospitality  in  the  form  of  rice-brewed 
beer,  and  the  bureau  of  education  representative 
lifted  the  flap  of  the  tent  and  pulled  out  two  men 
who  were  still  in  a  stupor  of  inebriety  following 
the  funeral.  The}'  began  to  beat  a  tom-tom,  mean- 
while keeping  step  to  their  own  time  moving  in 
a  circle.  Then  a  woman  with  a  baby  whose  feet 
were  fastened  in  a  belt  at  her  waist,  joined  the 
movement.  The  canyao,  it  seems,  was  in  celebra- 
tion of  the  baby  having  recovered  from  a  sickness. 

213 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Then  others  joined  until  perhaps  eight  or  ten  par- 
ticipated in  the  dance.  The  din  was  increased  by 
other  tom-toms,  shouts,  and  the  crooning  of  songs. 
Then,  as  the  revelry  "waxed  toward"  a  wassail,  a 
sort  of  pulque  was  passed  about,  and  the  Americans 
contributed  a  peso  each,  approximately,  for  the 
festivities.  There  was  perfect  propriety  in  this, 
as  the  foreigners  had  come  upon  their  own  invi- 
tation. Then  rose  the  squealing  of  a  lean,  razor- 
backed pig,  which  was  half  driven,  half  dragged 
by  ropes  fastened  to  the  legs,  ears,  and  snout  into 
the  charmed  circle.  Shoats  of  that  height  in  Iowa 
would  weigh  350  pounds.  This  of  the  mountain 
province  could  run  like  a  thoroughbred,  and 
scarcely  weighed  120  pounds.  The  porker  was 
tripped  and  securely  pegged  down  on  its  right  side. 
Then  the  master  of  ceremonies  appeared  with  a 
bolo,  a  hammer,  and  a  long,  wire  spike.  With  the 
bolo  he  dexterously  cut  two  sides  of  a  small  square 
in  the  skin  over  the  heart,  and  then  flayed  it,  half 
ripping,  half  cutting  it  from  the  flesh  beneath. 
Then  he  drove  the  spike  through  this  flayed  space 
into  the  heart  of  the  pig,  which  continued  to  squeal 
even  after  the  spike  had  reached  its  vitals.  The 
flap  of  the  skin  was  then  deftly  folded  over  tiie 

214 


A  Manila  Sunset. 


FUNERAL,  FEAST,  AND  FUNCTION 

wound  after  the  spike  was  withdrawn,  so  that  the 
cadaver  might  retain  all  the  blood.  The  goat  was 
to  come  next,  and  the  dog,  the  chosen  morsel,  last. 
We  did  not  care  to  see  a  like  operation  upon  the 
dog ;  a  poor  cur,  suggestive  of  fleas,  sorrel  in  color, 
and  mangy;  and  left  while  the  goat  was  being 
brought  forward.  We  rode  our  ponies  home  in 
the  gathering  darkness,  debating  among  ourselves 
the  question  of  independence  for  such  a  primitive 
population.  Either  the  Tagalogs  would  exploit 
them,  sell  many  of  them  into  slavery,  or  more  likely 
those  lithe  and  athletic  tribesmen  from  the  north 
and  the  Moros  from  the  south  would  utterly  over- 
whelm the  Tagalogs,  sacking  Manila  and  making 
wassail  along  the  Pasig,  as  Alaric  the  Goth  and 
Attila  the  Hun  reveled  in  the  palaces  of  Aven- 
tinus. 

It  is  with  some  trepidation  that  we  nominate  the 
great  international  outpouring  of  men  and  women 
of  all  nationalities  and  conditions  on  the  day  of 
prayer  for  China  as  a  "function."  It  was  a 
strange  prayer-meeting,  and  we  doubt  if  in  all  the 
circle  of  the  sun  elsewhere  as  large,  animated,  and 
cosmopolitan  an  assembly  waited  upon  the  Deity  in 
prayer  and  felicitation  over  the  new  Republic.    The 

215 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

news  by  the  Associated  Press  despatches  preferring 
the  request  of  the  Chinese  cabinet  for  the  prayers 
of  all  Christians  in  the  Ancient  Empire  for  the  suc- 
cess and  perpetuity  of  the  new  order  occasioned 
great  interest.  Bishop  William  Perry  Eveland, 
sho^Wng  the  true  elements  of  leadership,  at  once 
called  upon  Governor-General  Forbes  and  Major- 
General  Bell  of  the  army,  pointing  out  the  oppor- 
tunit}"  for  a  great  civic-religious  gathering  in  the 
Greek  Auditorium,  Camp  John  Hay.  Major- 
General  Bell,  who  is  diplomatist,  publicist,  and  mili- 
tary genius  combined,  at  once  took  the  burden  of 
arrangements,  sent  for  the  Chinese  Consul-General, 
forwarded  personal  invitations  by  orderlies  to  the 
department  heads,  instructed  Chaplain  Smith  from 
Corregidor  to  be  present,  ordered  out  the  regi- 
mental bands,  invited  Bishop  William  Perry  Eve- 
land  to  preside,  Governor-General  Forbes  to  in- 
troduce him,  and  with  military  directness  assigned 
Dr.  Geo.  William  Wright  and  this  writer  for  "re- 
marks," not  forgetting  a  friendly  nod  to  the  Chi- 
nese, who  were  servants  about  the  camp  to  the  num- 
ber of  sixty,  to  whom  he  assigned  seats  on  the  plat- 
form. 

The    Sabbath    afternoon    dawned    in    beautiful 

216 


FUNERAL,   FEAST,   AND   FUNCTION 

Baguio  splendor.  The  seats  were  crowded ;  the 
colonels  and  majors  were  out  in  full  force — 

"Great  is  vermilion  splashed  with  gold." 

Eighty  Igorrote  girls  from  Mrs.  Kelly's  School 
grouped  themselves  on  the  outer  rim  of  seats,  and 
civilians  by  the  hundred  filled  the  vacant  spaces, 
standing  to  hear  the  Scriptures,  prayers,  and  ad- 
dresses. The  spirit  of  the  occasion  left  nothing  to 
be  desired.  One  found  himself  wishing  that  some 
clergymen  who  dawdle  and  drone  through  an  un- 
limitable  list  of  services,  notices,  and  preliminary 
"remarks"  could  serv^e  as  chaplain  in  one  of  the 
Island  regiments  long  enough  to  leam  the  value  of 
precision,  penetration,  and  terminal  facilities. 
General  Bell  himself  was  drafted  by  Bishop  Eve- 
land  for  the  concluding  word,  alluding  to  Bret 
Harte's  personal  explanation  that  he  wrote  the 
poem 

"For  waj'S  that  are  dark  and  for  tricks  that  are  vain 
The  heathen  Chinee  is  peculiar," 

without  any  thought  that  it  really  represented  the 
Chinese,  and  voiced  his  often  expressed  regret  at 
the   inapplicable   though   friendly   lines. 

217 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

Dr.  Wright  spoke  on  the  unifying  and  clarifying 
energy  of  prayer,  and  concluded  his  deeply  spir- 
itual address  with  the  lines  of  Tennyson: 

"For  thus  the  whole  round  world  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

There  are  two  great  events  happening  within  the 
lifetime  of  the  new  generation  which  have  served 
to  cement  the  friendship  of  China  and  the  United 
States.  The  first  was  the  appointment  of  Anson 
Burlingame  as  minister  to  China  in  1861,  and 
the  treaty  which  he  afterwards  negotiated  with  the 
United  States  as  plenipotentiary  of  China.  By 
this  treaty  China  first  claimed  the  right  and  as- 
sumed the  responsibility  of  a  nation  according  to 
the  standards  of  international  law. 

The  other  event  was  the  maintenance  inviolate  of 
Chinese  ten^itory  following  the  Boxer  uprising, 
largely  due  to  the  diplomatic  representations  of 
Secretary  of  State  John  Hay  and  the  return  to 
the  impoverished  Chinese  treasury  of  the  balance  of 
the  Chinese  indemnity  not  used  in  liquidating  hona 
fide  American  claims  for  damages  arising  out  of 
the  insun^ection.  This  exhibition  of  honor  and 
good  faith  served  to  give  wide  publicity  to  the 

218 


FUNERAL,  FEAST,  AND   FUNCTION 

rapacity  of  other  nations,  and  deepened  the  respect 
and  esteem  in  which  the  United  States  was  held  by 
the  Chinese  Government.  Then,  coincident  vdth. 
increasing  intercommunication,  the  growth  of  the 
press,  the  spread  of  the  Enghsh  language,  and  the 
rising  tide  of  democracy  came  the  proclamation 
of  the  Chinese  Republic  and  the  appeal  for  the 
prayers  of  its  own  Christian  citizens.  Whatever 
the  motive,  w^hether  diplomatic  or  religious,  in- 
spiring the  request,  it  must  take  final  rank  as  of 
great  moment.  Men  are  bound  in  friendship  to 
those  for  whom  they  pray,  and  rally  to  the  support 
of  those  in  whose  interest  they  besiege  the  throne 
of  grace. 

"Yes,  pray  for  Him  tliou  lovest,  if  uncounted  wealth  were 

thine: 
The   treasures   of   the   mighty   deep,   the   riches   of   the 

mine; 
Thou  couldst  not  to  a  faithful  friend  a  dearer  gift  impart 
Than   the   earnest   consecration   of   a   deeply   prayerful 

heart." 

It  was  altogether  appropriate  that  such  an  ap- 
peal should  be  made  to  the  loyalty  of  large  num- 
bers of  its  citizens  who  by  the  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity had  conformed  to  Western  language,  law, 
and  religion,  and  by  their  very  habit  of  life  were 

SI  9 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

pledging  themselves  to  the  practice  of  equality. 
But  quite  as  basic  was  the  appeal  that  Christianity 
makes  to  the  strongest  races — to  the  men  who  have 
force  and  courage  in  their  blood.  A  weak  race  de- 
bases Christianity,  and  can  not  stand  up  under  its 
hard  duties.  But  because  the  Chinese  are  a  sturdy 
race  they  must  have  a  strong  faith.  They  are  a 
hardy  stock,  greatly  differing  from  the  Oriental 
populations  west  and  south  of  China,  or  from  the 
Malays  in  Japan  and  the  Philippines.  The  same 
open  door  that  let  the  nations  into  China  let  them 
out,  and  they  have  gone  everywhere  on  earth. 
The  Chinese  live  under  the  equator  like  a  Malay, 
and  bear  snowstorm  and  zero  weather  like  a  Ca- 
nadian or  a  Cossack.  Only  America  can  save  the 
Philippines  from  him.  He  already  monopolizes  the 
business  of  the  Islands.  The  quality  of  his  man- 
hood and  the  fiber  of  his  character  may  be  sug- 
gested by  an  allusion  to  his  history.  Of  the  na- 
tions that  filled  great  place  in  the  ancient  world, 
but  two  remain.  The  Hebrew,  oldest  branch  of 
the  Semitic  stock,  still  preserves  his  name  and  mem- 
ory, though  land  and  temple  were  torn  from  him 
in  70  A.  D.  But  China  is  the  same  old  China  of 
five  millienniums.    He  occupies  in  our  day  the  same 

2W 


FUNERAL,  FEAST,  AND  FUNCTION 

soil  where  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  generations 
the  Chinese  have  lived  and  died.  From  this  soil 
great  migrations  poured  out,  led  by  men  like 
Tamerlane  and  Ghengis  Khan.  The  fate  of  every 
other  nation  has  not  passed  upon  China,  and  now 
this  "graybeard"  has  not  only  adopted  Western 
civilization,  with  its  steam  engines,  electric  lights, 
and  wireless  telegraphy,  but  has  cut  off  its  queues, 
abolished  the  Manchu  monarchy,  and  adopted  a 
republic. 

Intellectually  the  Chinese  are  as  striking  as  they 
are  physically  and  historically  commanding.  His 
syllogism  is  efficient,  and  he  submits  its  fundamen- 
tal to  scientific  verification.  He  comes  slowly  to 
Ills  conclusions,  but  once  reached,  they  are  the  same 
to  which  any  logician  would  come,  given  the  same 
premises.  The  mariner's  compass,  gunpowder,  and 
the  art  of  printing  are  ancient  with  him.  Real 
world-progress  is  impossible  without  every  nation's 
participation.  Christianity  can  not  be  safe  In  Asia 
or  in  the  world  with  such  a  mass  unleavened  as  that 
warren  of  unnumbered  millions,  seething  like  a  cal- 
dron, effervescing  like  fermenting  yeast,  and  run- 
ning over  on  the  edges  like  a  huge  pan  of  dough. 

It  is  a  modern  wonder  of  the  world,  irresistibly 

221 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

novel,  that  China,  the  ancient  of  days,  has  come 
to  the  penitent  form  and  asked  for  "prayers." 
Now,  while  he  is  in  the  enthusiasm  and  faith  of 
his  modern  youth,  yet  tender  to  impressions,  and 
plastic  to  a  master's  hand,  our  Island  Americans, 
his  nearest  neighbors,  whose  methods  and  ideals  he 
strives  to  attain  with  imitative  exactness,  met  and 
spoke  hopefully  of  his  new  government,  and  flung 
out  the  banner  of  his  new  republic.  The  solemn 
hush  of  prayer,  the  moving  panorama  of  soldiers 
and  civilians,  the  beat  of  bands,  and  the  deep  notes 
of  thousands  of  human  voices,  with  the  Mongolian 
faces  that  filled  the  platform  of  the  Greek  Theater 
at  Baguio,  will  long  remain  to  those  who  saw  it, 
one  of  the  most  magnetic  visions  that  set  the  soul 
into  a  subtle  yearning  for  America,  for  China,  and 
for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


222 


Chapter  XIV 

THE  MODERN  ANTONY 

QHAKESPEARE  saw  in  :\Iark  Antony  the 
^^  Roman  Empire  coiTupted  by  the  sensual, 
enervating,  and  luxurious  East.  Insidious  as  the 
rust  which  gnaws  through  the  steel  keel  of  a  war- 
ship, as  corrosive  as  the  saline  particles  which  make 
a  desert,  as  the  ants  which  eat  out  the  heart  of  a 
library,  the  great  virtues  of  Antony — work,  cour- 
age, faith,  and  honor — were  eaten  out  by  sensu- 
ality and  the  indolence,  gluttony,  and  drunkenness 
that  are  so  often  in  fact  associated  with  it.  Cleo- 
patra, the  woman,  makes  his  life  the  quintessence  of 
tragedy.  The  "Vampire,"  by  Kipling,  has  a  touch 
of  hysteria,  which  saves  women  from  taking  it  too 
much  to  heart ;  "Becky  Sharp,"  by  Thackeray,  is 
a  great  achievement  in  satire;  but  the  recital  of 
Cleopatra's  influence  over  Antony,  as  though 
Shakespeare  had  a  sense  of  personal  pain,  and  as 
though  Cleopatra  were  the  woman  of  the  sonnets, 
makes  it  the  bitterest  thing  ever  written  by  man 

223 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

against  woman.  All  recrimination  between  the 
sexes  must  be  one-sided,  and  yet  that  does  not  break 
the  murderous  force  of  this  arraignment.  You  can 
not  study  Antony  too  often;  his  is  a  poison-story 
like  "Macbeth."  Lust  infected  the  veins  of  the 
princely  Antony,  and  he  became  bloated  and  gan- 
grened; like  Hamlet,  he  resolves  and  re-resolves, 
and,  like  Samson,  is  doomed  to  betrayal  and  self- 
destruction. 

Cleopatra  in  the  drama  represents  the  Orient, 
and  in  modern  life  specifies  the  cities  and  colonies 
where,  without  the  restraints  of  home,  publicity,  and 
religion,  men  meet  the  assaults  upon  their  purity, 
thrust  upon  each  in  turn  from  the  beginning  of 
time.  In  Shakespeare's  play,  as  in  the  actual 
chronicle,  there  is  luxury  and  an  oozing  plethora 
of  food,  drink,  and  equipage;  the  banquets  would 
bankrupt  a  province.  In  modern  fact  the  for- 
eigners, who,  like  Grill  in  the  bower  of  Acrasia 
^'Serves  his  brutish  ways,"  are  comparatively  rich, 
while  the  woman  is  poor.  In  everytliing  else  the 
parallel  is  perfect.  Antony  throwing  away  his 
empire  at  the  command  of  a  Circe,  is  a  present-day 
tragedy  and,  like  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  will  bear 
study  by  men  of  affairs,  statesmen,  and  educators. 

224 


THE  MODERN  ANTONY 

The  tragedy  is  still  on  the  boards  in  Algiers, 
Egypt,  India,  the  jNIalay  Peninsula,  Java,  and  the 
Philippines.  Perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say  that 
it  always  goes  on  where  superior  races  touch  the 
near  primitive.  Only  in  German}'',  England,  and 
the  United  States  is  the  traffic  in  girls  put  under 
the  ban  of  law. 

Whatever  low  wages  may  have  to  do  ^Wth  vice 
in  America,  the  dreadful  poverty  of  the  heathen 
world  makes  the  strange  woman,  if  less  attractive, 
less  abhorrent.  Here  women  are  thrown  to  the 
young  whelps  who  have  inherited  money  from  lions 
or  have  grabbed  it  in  the  wdld  forays  of  commerce 
and  the  stock  exchange.  There,  like  cats  lean  and 
hungry,  they  hunt  men. 

The  attempt  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  to  keep 
their  blood  clean  and  unmixed  is  well  known. 
Again  and  again  Israel  was  warned  not  to  miarry 
with  the  people  of  the  lands  they  were  to  conquer, 
but  to  utterly  drive  out  the  inhabitants.  As  they 
were  not  to  maiTy  wdth  them,  they  were  not  to 
eat  with  them.  They  were  trying  to  keep  the 
strain  of  blood  from  Abraham  clear  for  the  jNIes- 
siah,  is  the  one  explanation  given,  but  in  fact  it 
is  the  earliest  recorded  protest  against  that  ferine 
15  225 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

passion  which  is  evidenced  by  the  Eurasian  in  India, 
by  the  Mestizo  of  China  and  the  PhiHppines,  and 
the  Mulatto  of  our  own  country.  It  makes  civiliza- 
tion blush  for  its  latent  savagery.  The  caste- 
system  in  India,  though  now  largely  industrial, 
must  have  b^en  influenced  largely  in  its  early  de- 
velopment by  these  same  conditions  and  by  the  con- 
sequent deterioration  of  its  progeny.  The  preser- 
vation of  the  Jewish  stock  as  a  present  racial  entity 
is  rooted  in  the  commandments  of  the  old  law,  dis- 
obeyed by  individuals,  but  in  the  main  observed  to 
the  perpetuation  of  long  family  lines  and  enduring 
national  life.  The  ancient  royal  families,  like  the 
modern  aristocracies,  were  slow  to  learn  the  validity 
and  obligation  of  the  seventh  commandment. 

The  Dutch,  among  modern  colonizers,  have  been 
the  worst  offenders  in  the  way  of  lust,  though  the 
French  and  Spanish  have  little  in  their  record  that 
does  not  need  to  be  excused.  Even  the  English 
seem  to  condone  it  in  the  Army  officers,  and  the 
great  trading  corporations  recommend  a  "contract 
girl"  to  their  civilian  employees  in  the  Orient,  on 
the  supposition  that  it  conduces  to  a  longer  term 
of  service.  Church  and  school  have  likewise  suf- 
fered, and  Christianity  now  would  be  really,  not 

226 


THE  MODERN  ANTONY 

nominally,  triumphant  in  all  the  East  but  for  tliis 
bestial  fever.  There  is  less  to  choose  between  the 
illicit  and  the  marriage  "contract"  than  is  com- 
monly supposed.  On  its  face  the  latter  seems  every 
way  better,  but  the  quarrels,  separations,  abandon- 
ments, and  general  scandal  which  the  marriage  of 
the  American  and  the  native,  even  in  the  Philip- 
pines, occasions  leaves  much  to  be  desired.  The 
practice  of  buying  a  new  girl  every  year  is  quite 
common  among  both  the  English  and  the  French, 
and  one  American  in  Hong  Kong  said  he  bought 
a  new  one  every  year,  so  that  he  would  become  at- 
tached to  none,  and  that  he  liberally  supported 
his  children,  paying  fifty  cents  gold  per  week  to 
the  mother  of  each  for  the  support  of  the  child. 

By  comparison  the  Americans  have  done  exceed- 
ingly well.  The  great  percentage  of  our  men  prove 
by  their  bearing  and  habit  of  life  the  honor  and 
self-control  that  are  the  patents  of  democracy  and 
the  proofs  of  independence.  The  American  army 
officers,  in  spite  of  occasional  lapses,  honor  their 
country.  Fromi  the  highest  rank  to  the  newest  en- 
listed man  no  one  has  "pull"  enough  to  flaunt  de- 
cency in  the  face,  and  hope  to  maintain  his  rank 
and  standing.     Court-martial  is  certain  if  moral 

227 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

delinquencies  come  to  public  knowledge.  Resig- 
nation from  the  sendee  or  prompt  defense  and  full 
exoneration  or  immediate  dismissal  are  the  order 
of  the  day.  The  American  teachers  are  alike  credit- 
able. Some  under  forms  of  marriage  and  some 
doubtless  in  illicit  ways  as  well,  are  a  reproach  to 
the  mothers  who  bore  them  and  the  homeland.  But 
the  Bureau  of  education  is  as  jealous  for  the  Amer- 
ican good  name  as  is  the  army,  and  on  looking 
over  a  list  of  promotions  in  the  bureau,  made  by 
the  late  Frank  R.  Wliite,  director  of  education, 
no  teacher  was  included  who  had  married  a  Filipino 
woman  or  with  whose  good  name  the  tongue  of 
scandal  had  been  properly  busy.  It  may  have 
seemed  a  hardship  in  some  cases,  but  such  a  handi- 
cap ought  to  be  borne  by  any  man  contracting 
such  a  union,  formed  almost  certainly  without 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  woman  of  her  aban- 
donment or  divorce  at  the  termination  of  her  hus- 
band's term  of  Philippine  service.  One  American 
thus  married  and  divorced  was  at  Baguio,  where 
the  Teachers'  Assembly  is  held.  He  is  protected 
by  the  civil  service  laws,  but  hi&  resignation,  though 
not  foraially  requested,  would  find  immediate  ac- 
ceptance.    The  same  circumspect  life  is  common 

228 


THE  MODERN  ANTONY 

among  the  subordinates  of  the  PhlHppIne  Commis- 
sion, and  it  is  without  doubt  the  cleanest,  most  de- 
cent body  of  men  engaged  in  the  foreign  service  of 
any  nationahty. 

The  Spanish,  French,  and  Itahan  decadence  is 
too  well  known  to  need  statement  or  comment.  De- 
generacy is  never  a  pleasing  theme,  though  Jack 
London  made  the  decline  and  fall  of  a  dog  the 
subject  of  a  very  attractive  book;  but  that  was  a 
reversion  to  type  or,  as  Darwin  would  call  it,  "The 
Sur^^ival  of  the  Fittest."  But  degeneracy  has  no 
outcome,  and  is  therefore  avoided.  The  late  Lord 
Salisbury  called  Spain  a  "decadent  nation,"  and 
the  way  the  noble  Dons  made  faces  and  shrilled 
their  denials  showed  that  the  shot  had  gone  home. 
The  physical  rottenness  of  the  Spanish  nobility, 
and  the  excesses  of  the  dons,  padres,  and  caciques 
in  the  Philippines  have  practically  made  large  seg- 
ments of  the  Island  peoples  a  mestizo  breed.  Li 
"The  Call  of  the  Wild"  we  have  the  story  of  a 
dog  stolen  by  ]Manuel,  the  man  of  all  work  about 
the  house,  who  had  played  the  races  and  lost,  sold 
to  a  dog  buyer.  He  is  throttled  by  a  saloon  bum, 
beaten  by  an  express  messenger,  and  finally  reaches 
a  place  in  an  Alaskan  mail  team.     There  he  fights, 

r^  «^*  t/ 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

steals,  adjusts  himself  to  untoward  conditions,  and 
ultimately  comes  to  headship  in  a  pack  of  wolves, 
and  the  Newfoundland  strength  and  shepherd  cun- 
ning he  had  from)  his  forbears  come  to  be  infiltrated 
into  a  snarling,  yelping  pack  under  the  Arctic 
circle,  who  thus  become  the  fittest  to  survive.  But 
the  dog  who  thus  goes  to  his  own  would  be  slan- 
dered by  any  comparison  with  those  who  walk  on 
two  legs  among  the  poverty-stricken  women  of 
alien  peoples  and,  because  they  are  tall  and  of  a 
goodly  countenance,  speak  one  of  the  European 
languages,  and  are  thus  associated  with  the  pure 
and  austere  morals  of  the  Christians,  have  oppor- 
tunity to  iTiin  them  by  scores.  Gibbon  a,nd  London 
are  gentlemen  by  comparison.  Madam  de  Stael 
must  have  known  this  type  of  brute  when  she  re- 
marked, "The  more  I  know  of  men,  the  better  I 
think  of  dogs." 

Apparently  there  is  no  public  opinion  in  the  East. 
It  can  readily  be  understood  why  the  missionaries 
by  their  very  calling  would  be  estopped  from 
openly  challenging  the  insidious  vices  of  their  fel- 
low foreigners.  These  offending  officers  and  civil- 
ians are  often  the  one  link  binding  them  to  home, 
and  hospitalities,  fellowships,  and  coralmon  interests, 

230 


THE  MODERN  ANTONY 

as  well  as  evangelizing  duty,  seem  to  require  that 
they  shall  not  constitute  themselves  public  chal- 
lengers and  monitors  of  their  countrymen.  So  it 
comes  about  that  the  English  and  French  have  been 
illicit  in  India,  China,  and  Japan  for  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  and  honored  at  home.  Financial 
misconduct,  though  occumng  on  the  other  side  of 
the  world,  is  fro\Mied  upon  and  is  a  sure  bar  to 
social  happiness  in  either  London  or  Paris.  The 
Newcomes  suggest  the  aversion  and  ostracism 
which  doubtful  monetary  conduct  entails.  Now,  if 
public  opinion  could  be  induced  to  visit  like  punish- 
ment upon  moral  obliquity,  it  would  at  once  lose 
much  of  its  present  shamelessness  and  decrease 
quantitatively  both  as  fact  and  example.  Press 
associations,  news  cables,  steamship  lines,  and  the 
critics  which  the  Germans  in  China  and  the  Ameri- 
cans in  the  Philippines  naturally  become,  make  pub- 
licity easier  and  infinitely  more  effective.  No  laws 
yet  devised  are  so  repressive  as  the  certainty  of 
publicity,  and  a  public  opinion  that  wdll  reprobate 
as  vulgar  and  criminal  the  seduction  and  betrayal 
of  foreign  women,  whether  illicit  or  under  forms 
of  contract  marriage,  would  instantly  reduce  it  to 
a  minimum. 

231 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

The  Philippine  Assembly,  after  four  times  re- 
fusing, has  just  penalized  the  barter  and  sale  of 
slaves  and  the  practice  of  peonage.  The  Mann  act 
ought  to  be  extended  to  the  Islands.  It  took 
the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  Interior  for  the  Phil- 
ippine Island  Commission  to  rouse  Amienca  to  its 
importance,  and  though  the  secretary  was  dis- 
missed and  a  new  Congressional  committee  ap- 
pointed to  investigate,  and  the  Filipinos  given  a 
majority  on  the  commission,  the  penal  clauses  were 
enacted.  It  is  fortunate  that  President  Wilson, 
to  whom  the  country  looks  for  moral  leadership, 
whether  by  concession  or  by  private  order,  secured 
this  penalizing  advance.  Happily  the  American 
people  are  not  compelled  to  add  to  the  fight  against 
the  saloon  and  political  INIormonism  a  new  crusade 
against  slavery  in  the  Philippines. 

But  the  men  charged  with  executive  responsi- 
bility in  any  foreign  country  will  need  courage 
and  constancy.  This  is  quite  as  true  in  the  Phil- 
ippines. If  American  teachers,  civilians,  army  and 
navy  officers  can  not  altogether  be  disrated  for 
flagrant  vice,  at  least  it  should  be  emphatically 
known  that  promotion  ceases  in  cases  of  separation 
from  or  abandonment   of  Filipino   wives.      More- 

232 


THE  MODERN  ANTONY 

over,  offenses  by  either  officers  or  clergy,  Instead  of 
being  merely  whispered  about,  should  be  brought 
to  the  attention  of  governmental  or  ecclesiastical 
superiors.  That  will  prove  that  the  underlying 
purpose  is  decency,  and  not  scandal,  and  further 
responsibility  would  be  located.  It  Tvill  also  con- 
strain offenders  to  deport  themselves  more  repu- 
tably or  be  brought  up  with  a  sharp  turn,  either 
b}^  authority  or  by  public  opinion.  Democracy 
creates  new  wants,  calls  for  better  homes,  demands 
schools,  and  excites  its  individuals  to  revolt  against 
filth,  squalor,  ignorance,  and  stirs  discontent  in 
body,  mind,  and  spirit  until  they  are  elevated  and 
disenthralled.  Executives  more  frequently  than 
statutes  fail  to  give  the  public  protection.  The 
study  of  laws,  the  declaration  of  their  sphere,  and 
the  proclamation  of  their  influence  rest  upon  ad- 
ministrators, whether  in  Church  or  State.  To 
them,  men  cognizant  of  m^oral  turpitude  should 
make  their  definite  complaint. 

We  are  particularly  jealous  for  the  Philippines, 
where  the  United  States,  confessedly  a  Protes- 
tant power  of  the  first  magnitude,  is  in  the  crucible 
of  a  great  experiment.  The  Anglo-Saxon  and  his 
language  is  again  associated  in  the  mind  of  Oriental 

233 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

peoples  with  science  and  democracy.  The  Ameri- 
can is  subject  to  no  reHgious  superstitions,  supple 
to  no  aristocracy,  nor  will  he  suffer  exploitation  by 
any  special  interest.  His  conduct  can  give  the 
single  and  sufficient  answer  to  all  Mohammedanism 
and  paganism,  namely:  that  he  touched  the  East, 
and  was  not  contaminated  by  it.  The  moral  turpi- 
tude of  the  Philippine  Assembly  will  sooner  or  later 
dawn  upon  the  Amierican  people,  and  then  statutes 
as  broad  as  the  Mann  act  will  be  established  in  the 
interest  of  labor  and  morality. 

Perhaps  it  is  only  subjective  optimism  that  helps 
us  to  rise  from  a  perusal  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra, 
or  from  a  dissertation  on  the  modern  Antony,  feel- 
ing that  the  world  is  growing  better.  It  would 
be  impertinent  to  argue  moral  progress  from  ma- 
terial changes  and  betterments.  Some  things  give 
us  pause ;  for  example,  we  shall  all  agree  that 
Antony  is  high-souled  by  comparison  with  the 
modern  "cadet."  Tales  that  come  to  us  with  almost 
certain  proof  from  the  days  of  American  slavery 
equal  any  dereliction  reported  of  the  most  debased 
of  our  countrymen  abroad. 

We  are  none  too  hopeful  about  courses  of  in- 
struction in  sex  hygiene.     The  intellectual  side  is 

234 


THE  MODERN  ANTONY 

presented  cloarl}-,  definltel}^,  and  with  sufficient  de- 
tail, but  the  ethical  elements  are  vague  and  lack 
courage.  The  main  effect  is  information,  and  not 
virtue.  Knowledge  is  not  moral  power.  It  must 
be  expected,  as  never  before,  that  the  home  will 
teach  children  eugenics  without  concentrating  at- 
tention upon  sex  details.  The  new  education,  which 
must  begin  in  the  home,  must  be  morally  earnest 
and  "train  the  children's  character ;  teach  them  that 
purity  is  noble  and  possible;  that  vice  is  vile,  and 
carries  with  it  punishment ;  that  marriage  is  in- 
violable, and  that  the  family  is  sacred."  It  must 
be  continued  in  the  denominational  colleges,  and  it 
should  become  the  objective  of  many  prayer-meet- 
ings among  boys  and  young  men  now  carried  on 
by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  Med- 
ical men  who  sound  the  warnings  of  disease  are  to 
be  encouraged.  They  answer  with  increasing  acu- 
men the  horrid  sneer  of  Mephistopheles,  that  "man 
used  his  reason  to  become  more  bestial  than  the 
beast."  Segregation  for  venereal  diseases,  as  for 
smallpox  and  tuberculosis,  is  to  be  justified  and 
anticipated  with  the  progress  of  civilization. 


235 


Chapter  XV 

AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

TT^IFFERENT  explanations  are  made  for  the 
-*"^  sudden  change  of  American  pubHc  opinion 
toward  Japan.  No  one  questions  the  fact.  Cali- 
fornia gets  credit  for  raising  the  issue,  and  every 
"leading  writer"  has  his  own  theory  for  the  veer- 
ing of  public  sentiment,  that  a  few  short  years  ago 
was  so  appreciative  and  laudatory.  The  gallant 
fight  of  little  Japan  against  Russia  carried  Ameri- 
can sympathy  with  it ;  the  precision,  skill,  and  suc- 
cess of  the  little  brown  men  received  unstinted  ad- 
miration, and  the  self-restraint  and  good  judgment 
shown  in  the  conclusion  of  the  Portsmouth  treaty 
helped  to  confirm  the  world's  high  estimate  that 
they  were  men  of  peace  driven  to  war,  and  that 
they  were  as  skillful  in  council  as  they  were  valiant 
in  arms.  To  assume  that  race-prejudice  has  occa- 
sioned the  change  or  to  charge  it  to  the  wish  of 
California  to  have  servility  and  inferiority  in  its 
immigrants,   can  not  be   seriously   urged ;   yet  no 

236 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

less    a   publicist   than   one   of   the   editors    of   the 
Outlook  credits  it  to  race-prejudice  and  says: 

"The  Japanese  have  never  been  servile;  that  is 
the  secret  of  the  dislike  for  them  felt  by  Western 
peoples,  accustomed  to  treat  the  Oriental  as  if  he 
were  outside  the  protection  of  law." 

The  insignificant  number  of  Japanese  settled  in 
California,  actually  decreased  within  the  last  two 
3^ears,  shows  tliat  no  racial  issue  of  importance 
really  exists.  "Baron  Chinda's  Menace  at  Wash- 
ington," "Tok3^o  Jingoes,"  "Irresponsible  Japa- 
nese War-Talk,"  also  come  in  for  enumeration. 
From  a  recent  weekly  we  quote  a  rather  able  and 
illuminating  paragraph : 

"The  situation  is  rendered  more  serious  by  the 
impossibility  of  expecting  Japan  to  accept  any 
scheme  of  compromise  to  save  'face'  as  she  did  in 
the  case  of  the  San  Francisco  school  question.  The 
Tokyo  foreign  office  has  never  been  forgiven  by 
the  public  for  accepting  this  humiliation;  and  it 
is  strongly  felt  now  that  all  such  deference  to  race- 
prejudice  never  permanently  adjusts  the  difficulty, 
but  only  puts  off  the  evil  day.  Japan  has  now 
reached  a  position  in  the  family  of  nations  where 
she  feels  she  must  take  a  firm  stand  for  equal  treat- 

237 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

ment  or  be  relegated  again  to  the   position  of  a 
second-class  power." 

This  is  entirely  wide  of  the  mark,  for  one  Ameri- 
can at  least,  and  we  suspect  it  is  for  most  Ameri- 
cans. Let  mie  testify  to  the  reasons  that  caused 
my  own  change  of  front.  We  were  just  leaving 
India  when  we  heard  of  the  decision  of  the  Japa- 
nese Appellate  Court  releasing  99  of  the  105  Ko- 
rean Christians  convicted  for  the  attempted  assassi- 
nation of  the  Governor-General  of  Korea.  Be- 
ginning with  that  announcement,  we  frequently 
heard  the  Associated  Press  reprobated,  and  the 
veiled  reference  to  the  unreliability  of  that  great 
news  agency  w^as  illustrated  by  the  denials  oft  re- 
peated that  "there  was  no  torture"  of  prisoners. 
We  thought  it  only  the  jealousy  of  rivals.  Then 
we  learned  that  there  had  been  no  attempt  to 
assassinate  the  official  in  question,  and  that  it  was 
a  "frame-up"  to  give  some  slight  justification  for 
the  faithlessness  the  Japanese  foreign  office  had 
shown  in  its  promise  to  maintain  Korean  independ- 
ence. In  Manila,  before  the  California  Legislature 
really  showed  any  inclination  to  settle  out  of  hand 
a  question  98  per  cent  national,  we  were  told  again 
and  again  that  the  Japanese  were  cruel,  that  they 

^38 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

had  veneered  over  their  innate  habit  of  overriding: 
the  rights  of  the  weak  and  the  lowly,  that  they 
were  truly  Malay,  and  that  proof  of  their  national 
honor  would  need  to  wait  on  refusing  to  torture 
prisoners  to  secure  a  confession,  and  afterwards 
convicting  suspects  on  testimony  so  obtained,  and 
that  the  Japanese  judiciary  were  plainly  under  the 
domination  of  the  Tokyo  Government.  This  was 
unsettling,  to  say  the  least.  Then  in  Japan  we  saw 
cartoons  appearing  in  the  Japanese  papers  against 
Christianity  and  America,  heard  the  open  statement 
that  "the  only  way  to  make  the  Japanese  tell  the 
truth  is  to  torture  them,"  and  four  weeks  in  the 
company  of  men  who  had  sat  at  the  trial  of  the  poor 
Koreans  in  whose  good  faith  no  less  than  eight  dif- 
ferent denominations  put  implicit  trust,  completed 
my  own  change  of  attitude.  Either  my  impression- 
ableness  to  public  opinion  or  these  facts  about  the 
Japanese  themselves,  have  compelled  me  to  feel  that 
there  is  a  world-wide  repudiation  of  the  Japanese 
State's  claim  to  civilized  social  equality  based  upon 
the  barbaric  and  mediaeval  practices  of  torture  and 
of  a  judiciary  subsei*vient  to  political  influence. 

Now,    equality    mtay    relate   to    many    different 
things;  just  as  there  is  a  flesh  man,  a  muscle  man, 

239 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

a  skeleton  man,  a  venous  man,  a  nerve  man,  and 
so  on  for  twenty-six  different  specifications, 
equality  may  be  of  the  material,  may  relate  to 
capacity  for  self-government  or  to  social  accept- 
ance. The  first,  the  question  of  economic  equality, 
is  really  no  question  at  all,  and  what  is  worth  the 
while  is  for  the  political  economist,  who  may  won- 
der at  the  tremendous  taxes  that  the  Japanese  en- 
dure. The  second  is  continually  asserted  to  be  true 
of  several  South  American  countries  by  the  coun- 
tries themselves,  in  the  public  eye  at  the  present 
time,  notably  Mexico.  As  to  the  latter,  any  woman 
can  tell  us  that  the  only  way  to  get  social  recog- 
nition is  to  behave  3^ourself,  keep  your  house  spick 
and  span,  and  besides  do  something  that  is  worth 
while  for  the  world  or  for  the  social  set  to  which 
you  belong.  But  as  to  tliis  last  and  perhaps  the 
most  debated  "equality,"  be  it  remembered  that 
there  is  a  national  "four  hundred"  and  likewise 
an  international  Mrs.  Grundy.  Now,  it  would 
seem  that  Uncle  Sam  introduced  the  new  social 
aspirant,  and  saw  that  several  of  his  good  friends 
at  the  club  "left  cards."  But  Mrs.  Grundy  has 
quietly  told  it  about  that  the  Jap  aforesaid  is  a 
"bounder,"   that  his   manners   are  execrable,  that 

240 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

he  tortures  prisoners  and  does  not  pay  his  gam- 
bling debts,  and  that,  while  he  may  call  at  the 
office,  the  invitations  to  the  soiree  are  limited  in 
number,  and  that  the  Jap  is  a  Malay  anyway. 
Moreover,  some  friend  should  tell  him  that  he 
makes  the  impression  of  a  before-the-war  overseer, 
who  spent  his  time  trying  to  break  into  the  social 
round  carried  on  up  at  the  big  plantation  house. 
We  are  told  again  and  again  that  he  is  sensitive. 
Goodness  knows  he  needs  to  be.  It  is  probably  too 
early  in  the  history  of  diplomacy  to  expect  am- 
bassadors to  tell  the  plain,  unvarnished  truth; 
rather  the  formula  is  that  of  Immanuel  Kant,  who 
delimited  the  prevaricatory  frontier  by  saying  that, 
while  he  was  detemiined  never  to  falsify,  he  was  de- 
termined not  to  tell  uncalled-for  truths.  But  the 
Tokyo  Government  may  abate  its  talk  about 
"honor"  and  may  expect  suspicion  of  its  declared 
intentions  while  the  treachery  of  the  Korean  an- 
nexation is  so  widely  known  by  men  living.  They 
clearly  meditate  the  annexation  of  a  portion  of 
Manchuria  on  the  same  terms.  Let  it  be  granted 
that  Korea  is  better  off  under  Japanese  rule.  That 
is  not  the  issue.  The  question  before  the  meeting  is 
Japanese  honor;  Japan  promised  Russia,  her  ar- 
1^  24.1 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

mies  being  in  the  field,  and  the  United  States,  who 
has  done  so  much  to  secure  the  new  nation  welcome 
at  its  world  council  board,  to  "respect  the  integrity 
of  Korea."  She  did  not ;  therefore,  as  a  plain 
American,  my  attitude  is  changed.  Baron  Chinda, 
Japanese  Ambassador  at  Washington,  called  at  the 
Department  of  State  and  told  Secretary  Bryan  that 
a  certain  Baron  Yun  (one  of  the  Koreans  who  had 
not  been  released  with  the  ninety-nine  convicted 
of  attempting  to  assassinate  the  Governor-General 
of  Korea)  was  not  in  prison,  but  was  out  on  bail. 
Secretary  Bryan  believed  it;  a  missionary  of  the 
Church  South  is  reported  to  have  spent  a  week's 
salary  cabling  Washington,  "The  Japanese  am- 
bassador is  mistaken."  Now,  what  is  a  self-respect- 
ing Secretary  of  State  to  do.'^  Baron  Chinda  grad- 
uated at  De  Pauw  University,  and  undoubtedly  re- 
ported what  the  Japanese  foreign  office  advised  him 
to  announce.  The  Governor-General  of  Korea  told 
a  comtmittee  of  missionaries  "that  the  torture  of 
prisoners  is  against  the  law,  and  there  has  been 
no  torture."  They  believed  him,  doubted  their 
own  brethren,  the  evidence  of  their  own  senses,  and 
eyed  askance  the  plucky  Southerner  who  precipi- 
tated  the   w^orld   knowledge   of   the   enormity   by 

242 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

hiring  a  lawyer  to  defend  his  members  and  prove 
the  governor-general  "mistaken."  ^ly  theory  is 
that  Japan  has  been  arraigned  before  the  tribunal 
of  public  opinion,  and  just  as  sundry  nations  have 
been  visiting  displeasure  upon  the  Russian  grand 
dukes  because  of  their  infamous  treatment  of  the 
Jews,  so  Japan  is  under  sentence  to  wait  at  the 
lodge  door  until  some  word  is  returned  before  it 
is  raised  to  the  sublime  degree  or  takes  any  new 
solemn  affirmation  at  the  altar  of  mystery. 

But  let  us  get  to  the  trial.  The  whole  East  fol- 
lowed it  with  absorbing  interest.  From  Calcutta 
to  Manila,  with  shore  leave  at  Rangoon,  Penang, 
Singapore,  Hong  Kong,  and  from  Manila  to  Yoko- 
hama, off  again  at  Hong  Kong  and  Shanghai,  we 
read  carefully,  inquired  intelligently,  and  became 
breathlessly  interested  in  the  fate  of  the  other  six. 
It  was  cruel  bej^ond  expression  for  the  poor  Korean 
Christians,  but  unfortunate  to  the  point  of  tragedy 
for  the  reversal  of  opinion  toward  Japan  by  the 
civilized  world.  Incidentally  the  Associated  Press 
suffered  immensely  in  public  confidence;  the  par- 
ticular representative  of  the  Press  was  "decorated" 
by  the  Mikado,  and  that  of  itself  suggests  that  the 
new  Island  empire  has  gone  to  school  to  Machia- 

243 


IN  PORTS  Al  AR 

vclli ;  one  wonders  what  it  was  that  caused  the  New 
York  Herald  to  withdraw  its  accusation  against  the 
Associated  Press — pressure  or  threat  to  discontinue 
the  news  service,  probably,  though  tliat  would 
hardly  seem  sufficient  for  a  change  of  front  by 
the  great  organ  of  James  Gordon  Bennett.  The 
judge  who  presided  at  the  trial  was  plainly  taking 
orders  from  Tok^^o.  The  judge  was  in  a  way  sub- 
ordinate, and  the  Associated  Press  representative 
was  dismissed. 

The  Koreans  are  devotedl}^  patriotic.  The  Ko- 
rean court  was  divided ;  several  factions  trying  to 
gain  and  keep  the  favor  of  the  prince,  born  to 
rule  without  inheriting  the  capacity  to  carry  his 
country  through  troublous  times.  Japan's  cam- 
paign against  Russia  was  carried  on  with  Korea  as 
a  base,  but  under  pledge  to  the  United  States  to 
respect  the  independence,  renewed  later  to  both 
the  United  States  and  Russia.  Then  came  the  an- 
nexation, with  nation-wide  discontent,  and  pre- 
cisely the  conditions  for  exciting  insurrection  and 
assassination.  Then  the  Marquis  of  Ito  was  assas- 
sinated in  Manchuria  by  a  Korean.  The  Japanese, 
knowing  that  their  own  treachery  was  an  incite- 
ment to  insurgency,  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that 

244 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

some  one  was  conspiring  against  the  Governor- 
General  of  Korea.  Their  fears  and  conscience  were 
the  basis  of  their  suspicion,  and  the  poHce  got  busy 
to  locate  the  criminals.  They  arrested  125  Chris- 
tians, probably  because  they  attended  regular 
prayer-meetings,  which  the  Japanese  in  their  po- 
litical trespass  could  not  understand. 

A  police  inspector,  Kinutomo  by  name,  with  an 
Intei*preter  and  a  clerk  to  record  their  confessions, 
took  these  125  in  hand,  strung  themi  up  by  their 
thumbs,  burned  the  soles  of  their  feet,  seared  them 
with  red-hot  irons,  placed  them  in  half  standing 
and  half  sitting  positions,  and  in  seventy-two  dif- 
ferent, horrible,  savage,  and  brutal  ways,  for 
twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  days,  as  was  necessary,  tor- 
tured them  until  they  cried  out  anything  they  were 
told  to  say.  Dozens  of  them  were  sent  to  the 
hospitals  to  be  treated  for  their  wounds ;  two  died ; 
and  the  stories  having  been  secured,  they  were  sent 
before  the  prosecuting  attorney  to  repeat  the  story. 
There  they  disowned  their  confessions,  saying  that 
they  were  secured  under  torture,  and  forthwith  were 
sent  back  to  the  police  inspector,  who  applied  the 
same  tortures  and  told  them  frankly  that  if  they 
came   back   again,   and   remained   recalcitrant,   he 

245 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

would  kill  them.  One  Christian,  of  such  high  de- 
gree that  they  did  not  dare  to  apply  physical  tor- 
ture, was  compelled  to  listen  for  thirty  days  to  the 
dreadful  procedure  until  he  came  to  believe  that, 
with  such  a  heavy  hand  upon  his  less  financially 
and  socially  important  brethren,  he  would  bet- 
ter keep  still  than  to  continue  the  terror  by  telling 
the  facts.  Imagine  yourself  shut  up  with  Kinu- 
tomo,  his  clerk  Interpreter,  and  the  instruments  of 
torture  at  hand.  You  state  that  you  never  par- 
ticipated in  an  attempt  upon  the  life  of  the  gov- 
ernor-general, that  you  never  heard  any  of  your 
brethren  propose  it,  nor  was  it  discussed  at  any  of 
the  prayer-meetings  or  business  meetings  of  the 
Church  you  attended.  Then  this  inquisitor  gives 
you  his  full  program;  on  the  fortieth  day  you  are 
still  alive,  and  you  say  to  him,  "Hitherto  I  have 
told  you  the  truth,  but  hereafter  I  shall  answer 
as  you  wdsh."  He  asks  you  who  was  at  a  certain 
meeting ;  you  tell  him  who  were  there.  Then,  with 
a  tweak  of  his  deadly  iron  or  rope  or  fire,  he  says, 
"Such  a  man"  (naming  him)  "was  there .^"  and  you 
say,  "Yes."  "How  many  revolvers  did  they  dis- 
tribute.?" You  say,  "Two  hundred."  "No ;  that  is 
too  many."     Then  you  change  the  answer  to  five. 

246 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

"That  is  too  few."  "Well,  then,  twenty-seven." 
"Very  good."  And  so  through  the  details  of  a 
"frame-up"  involving  men,  place,  and  events  as 
remote  from  fact  as  could  be  the  participation  of 
readers  of  this  chapter.  It  continues  for  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  daj^s.  After  hearing  the  details 
from  men  who  heard  the  recital  in  court,  their  own 
faces  wet  with  tears  as  they  told  it,  and  my  own 
heart  burning  with  mob  violence  meanwhile,  you 
may  understand  that  in  my  thought  Kinutomo  and 
Torquemada  are  in  the  same  class. 

In  the  court  of  first  instance  these  confessions 
were  assumed  to  be  true,  and  even  in  the  appellate 
judicature  the  court  refused  to  call  the  doctors  and 
nurses  who  had  attended  the  sufferers  to  testify  to 
their  wounds  and  agon}',  while  the  chief  of  police, 
sword  in  hand,  stood  glowering  and  glaring  at  the 
prisoners,  trying  to  keep  back  the  flood  of  testi- 
mony against  the  police  enormities  that  would  out. 
It  is  useless  to  fill  up  pages  with  details  or  argue 
that  such  things  could  remain  unknown,  and  that 
the  judge  and  the  Associated  Press  representative 
did  not  know.  The  record  would  have  been  dis- 
graceful in  the  tenth  century  of  the  Christian  era. 
It  is  a  shame  for  the  civilized  world; 

247 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

"For  mankind   is  one  in  spirit  and  an   impulse  bears 

along 
Round  the  earth's  electric  circle  the  swift  blush  of  right 

and  wrong." 

It  is  idle  to  talk  about  Japan  being  sensitive,  and 
to  mention  her  "honor,"  and  to  assume  that  CaH- 
foniia  raised  the  issue.  The  two  questions  are: 
What  ought  to  be  done  to  make  sure  that  it  will 
never  occur  again?  and.  What  shall  be  done  to 
secure  the  release  of  the  poor  six,  w^ho  are  without 
friends,  protection,  or  liberty,  and  caught  in  the 
sinuosities  of  the  Oriental  mind,  which  insists  that 
something  must  be  done  and  some  one  found  guilty 
in  order  to  "save  face?"  It  is  the  case  of  a  Japa- 
nese Dreyfus,  only  in  far-aw^y  Korea  there  are 
six  of  them  given  over  to  a  Devil's  Island,  and 
with  no  Colonel  Picquart,  Zola,  or  Maitre  Labori 
to  agitate  until  justice  be  done  them.  The  Japa- 
nese plainly  meditate  more  serious  reprisals  against 
the  United  States  than  any  educated  American  is 
willing  at  this  stage  of  public  opinion  to  credit. 
No  one  six  months  ago  would  have  credited  Huerta 
with  a  disposition  to  challenge  American  public 
opinion,  and  yet  he  has  done  it.  Autocrats  and 
dictators  are  slow  to  learn,  and  no  lesson  has  yet 

248 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

been  given  to  the  Japanese  official  classes.  They 
need  American  sympathy  and  straight- forward 
speech  on  the  part  of  their  American  friends.  In- 
stead of  American  papers  of  large  influence  saying 
that  there  has  been  no  torture  of  Korean  Christians, 
only  a  little  "third-degree"  police  practice,  and 
that  the  approval  by  the  supreme  court  of  the  guilt 
of  the  six  finally  settles  the  matter,  there  should 
be  the  unequivocal  demand  for  a  rehearing. 

People  who  ought  to  know  told  us  at  Tokyo  that 
torture  is  practiced  regularly  in  Japan.  Let  some 
one  tell  these  little  chaps  that  they  have  a  long 
way  to  equality  yet.  They  will  need  to  make  such 
reparation  as  is  in  their  power ;  first,  try  and  punish 
Kinutomo  for  the  murder  of  two  of  his  country- 
men, and  second,  give  more  than  their  mere  word 
that  they  will  not  repeat  the  same  treachery  toward 
China. 

And  so  we  went  to  Japan,  rode  about  Nagasaki, 
admired  the  inland  sea,  landed  at  Kobe  for  a  five- 
days'  trip  to  Kyoto,  Miyanoshita,  Kamakura,  where 
the  great  god  Buddha  sits  and  equably  "hears  the 
seas  and  centuries  murmur  in  his  ears,"  and  Tokyo ; 
we  saw  the  azalea  dance,  rode  in  jinrikishas  often, 
admired  the  thrift  and  beauty  of  the  farms,  and 

249 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

saw  regiments  miarching  in  and  out  before  the  im- 
perial palace.  Our  "boy"  told  us  in  rather  good 
English  that  Japan  would  land  five  hundred  thou- 
sand men  in  California  if  we  did  not  give  them 
"their  rights."  We  saw  the  tombs  of  the  forty- 
seven  Ronins,  visited  the  palaces  and  temples  of 
the  Shoguns,  and  chaffered  over  dress  goods,  Dam- 
ascene work,  and  spent  an  afternoon  watching 
the  All-Filipino  baseball  team  play  the  University 
of  Japan  team,  Meiji.  They  are  Malay,  not  Mon- 
gol; they  are  an  island  empire  and,  like  England, 
contiguous  to  a  great  continent,  over  which  they 
will  undoubtedly  exercise  the  greatest  influence; 
just  now  they  are  talking  about  equality,  while  the 
official  classes  oppress  the  poor  and  lay  grievous 
burdens  upon  their  backs.  It  is  a  system  of  ex- 
ploitation such  as  is  common  in  other  parts  of  the 
world,  and  while  it  is  Oriental,  it  is  not  democratic, 
and  the  day  hastens  when  some  Secretary  of  State 
and  some  great  body  of  missionaries  will  need  to 
speak  the  plain  truth  about  this  boy  of  civilization 
who  has  been  given  a  rifle  and  automobile  by  his 
folks,  and  who  is  now  the  terror  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. 

One  word  of  commendation  for  the  plucky  mis- 

250 


AMERICA  AND  JAPAN 

sionary  of  the  Methodist  Church  South,  who  could 
not  be  silenced  nor  terrorized.  His  name  is  Cook. 
Across  the  barriers  of  States  and  sections  let  him 
have  greeting.  There  goes  a  man!  And  this 
brings  me  to  the  word  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
which  we  have  been  yearning  to  say:  "The  gods 
have  forgiveness  for  all  sins,  but  heaven  itself  can 
not  save  a  man  who  will  not  fight." 


251 


Chapter  XVI 

TRANS-PACIFIC 

T  EAVING  Manila  by  the  Pacific  Mail  is  an 
•^-^  event  equal  to  a  college  Commencement  or  the 
coming  of  the  circus  to  town.  The  bands  play, 
the  flags  float,  and  there  is  something  festive  in  the 
air.  It  consumed  all  Saturday  afternoon,  when  we 
were  supposed  to  embark,  and  until  Sunday  noon. 
Vice-Governor-General  Gilbert  drove  us  down  in 
an  auto.  He  was  invited  to  stay  during  the  Wilson 
administration,  but  elected  othenvise.  With  po- 
litical experience  as  Congressman  and  judge;  gen- 
ial, substantial,  and  diplomatic;  knowing  every 
detail  of  the  governing  process  and  every  intricacy 
of  the  native  mind, — he  would  have  been  invaluable 
to  the  new  administration.  Mr.  Tener,  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  also  w^aved  us 
off.  John  R.  Mott  picked  a  thoroughbred  when 
he  "rounded  him*  up"  at  the  State  College  at  Ames. 
Our  new^  friends  festooned  the  cabin  with  flowers 
and  supplied  us  with  books  and  magazines,  not  to 

^52 


TRANS-PACIFIC 

mention  a  formidable-looking  Igorrote  spear  and 
a  fierce  bolo.  The  great  ship  swung  round,  and 
the  band  played  "Home,  Sweet  Home."  Just  when 
we  were  off  we  did  not  care  to  know,  and  for  hours 
we  sat  on  deck  watching  Cavite,  Corregidor,  and 
waving  at  the  camp  and  the  bay,  happy  to  be  go- 
ing, yet  yearning  to  stay.  The  land  seems  a  part 
of  the  United  States,  and  having  been  there,  Ma- 
nila does  not  seem  so  far  away.  It  grows  corn  like 
Iowa,  has  big  lumber  camps  like  Michigan  and 
Washington,  raises  sugar  like  Louisiana.  Besides^ 
there  we  have  "dominion  over  palm  and  pine." 

It  was  in  1571,  when  the  brilliant  star  of  Spain 
was  fast  hastening  to  its  setting,  and  w^hen  the 
dominion  of  the  sea  was  passing  to  Britain  because 
of  her  insular  position,  instead  of  to  the  Dutch, 
who  might  well  have  hoped  to  possess  it,  that 
Legazpi  sailed  up  this  self-same  bay  and  founded 
Manila.  It  was  a  significant  date  in  Spanish  his- 
tory. The  position  is  strategic,  the  climate  is 
tempered  by  proximity  to  the  ocean,  the  mountain 
provinces,  easily  accessible,  afford  relief  during  the 
heated  term ;  the  soil  has  a  fertility  unrivaled,  and, 
surrounded  by  forests,  where  grow  the  solidest  and 
finest  woods,  Luzon  and  its  city  might  expect  to 

253 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

dominate  the  coasts  of  Asia  as  England  the  conti- 
nent to  which  it  is  contiguous.  For  a  few  months 
during  the  Seven  Years'  War,  Manila  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  English,  but  Lord  Bute,  not  knowing 
its  value,  scarce  its  location,  and  trying  to  appease 
the  war  furies  that  had  been  dancing  their  mad 
revel,  gave  it  back  to  Spain.  It  suffered  the  slow- 
decay  of  all  the  Spanish  provinces,  and  diseased, 
possessed,  deluded,  without  initiative  to  achieve  its 
sanitary  and  economic  well-being,  and  without  wish 
or  energy  to  renounce  Spain  and  become  independ- 
ent, it  was  a  pawn  well  advanced  on  the  political 
chess-board,  and  sure  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
first  piece  with  leisure  and  disposition  to  take  it. 

Whether  it  is  to  be  rehabilitated  and  reconsti- 
tuted, Manila  made  into  the  chief  city  in  all  the 
Orient,  second  perhaps  only  to  Singapore,  or 
whether  it  is  to  be  allowed  to  relapse  into  Central 
American  disorder,  dirt,  and  poverty,  be  further 
exploited  by  its  own  leaders,  and  follow  the  revo- 
lutionary history  of  its  kindred  provinces,  is  for 
the  United  States  to  determine.  The  development 
of  the  Islands  is  so  important,  as  a  political  and 
commercial  opportunity  it  may  determine  the  poli- 
cies  to  be  pursued  in  half  a  dozen  other   coun- 

254 


TRANS-PACIFIC 

tries,  and  has  proceeded  up  to  this  time  without 
poHtical  entanglements  and  on  a  non-partisan  basis, 
so  that  even  those  who  helped  the  new  adminis- 
tration into  power  can  not  but  regret  that  the  first 
appointments  by  the  new  Governor-General  seem 
purely  political,  and  that  the  first  announced  policy 
appears  to  be  a  concession  to  party  malcontents, 
who  first  of  all  are  determined  to  serve  themselves. 
Those  who  opposed  the  Nicaragua  treaty  because 
it  w^ould  retain  the  present  goverament  in  power 
in  that  Central  American  State  ^vill  favor  the 
abandonment  of  the  Philippines.  To  others  tliat 
treaty  seems  to  express  the  comity  and  fraternal 
relations  which  ought  to  obtain  among  all  the  West- 
ern Continent  republics,  and  they  would  regard  the 
withdrawal  from  the  Islands  as  hesitating  to  pro- 
ceed with  a  plain  moral  duty  laid  upon  the  United 
States  by  the  Providence  of  events.  Every  Ameri- 
can and  European  visitor  we  met  seemed  to  main- 
tain the  latter  attitude.  Bishop  Brent  aligned 
himself  with  this  group  when  he  said  that  the 
effort  of  America  should  be  "not  to  rid  herself  of 
a  difficulty,  but  to  rise  to  an  opportunity  and 
to  render  a  service." 

How  perilous  it  is  to  give  the  natives  control 

255 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

of  tlic  Philippine  Commission,  is  easily  understood. 
American  control  becomes  at  once  no  longer  a  mat- 
ter of  decision  in  Manila,  but  the  result  of  legis- 
lative or  executive  order  in  Washington.  This  of 
itself  can  not  be  regarded  lightly,  but  it  is  of  small 
weight  compared  to  the  responsibility  involved  in 
giving  a  large  increase  of  power  to  the  "politicos" 
who  already  dominate.  The  vast  majority  of  the 
Islanders  can  not  read  or  write,  and  have  no  part 
in  the  government  by  voting.  A  limited  group, 
rich,  trained  under  the  Spanish  regime,  aristo- 
cratic, and  temperamentally  hostile  to  democracy, 
now  control  the  government.  They  are  in  no  sense 
representative  people.  With  great  force  Bishop 
Oldham  called  the  attention  of  the  Lake  Mohonk 
Conference  to  the  tribal  ideas  which  still  exist,  and 
the  submission  of  the  common  people  to  the  tribal 
leader.  This  has  been  degraded  by  a  transfer  from 
the  tribal  leader,  the  cacique,  to  the  ilustrado,  the 
big  landowner.  The  President's  new  appointees 
belong  to  the  ilustrado  class.  Jaime  C.  de 
Veyra,  one  of  the  new  commissioners,  is  a  large 
land  holder,  and  his  election  to  the  Assembly 
was  largely  by  his  dependents.  Judge  Mapa, 
who  has  been  on  the  superior  court  bench,  is  an- 

256 


TRANS-PACIFIC 

other  ilustrado.  Giving  such  men  larger  power 
and  reducing  the  representation  of  Americans 
trained  to  consult  and  submit  to  the  popular  will, 
is  not  an  extension  of  democracy.  To  entrust  men 
of  such  temper  and  training  \vith  the  enforcement 
of  laws  against  peonage  and  slavery,  when  they 
have  been  practically  accustomed  to  peonage,  and 
to  plan  an  educational  policy  that  shall  make  the 
natives  self-reliant,  self-respecting,  and  econom- 
ically independent,  or  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
to  administer  such  laws,  is  like  committing  the  con- 
trol of  the  currency  to  the  bankers,  the  tariff 
schedules  to  the  manufacturers,  and  apportioning 
poHce  control  to  the  leaders  of  the  underworld. 
The  official  reply  of  the  Philippine  Assembly  to 
the  address  of  the  new  governor-general  expresses 
the  arrogance  of  a  group  of  men  absorbing  to 
themselves  and  for  themselves  emoluments,  places, 
and  privileges  reserved  by  democracy  for  the  com- 
mon good. 

The  Pacific  Mail  furnishes  a  trans-Pacific  sailing 
superior  in  every  way.  Only  at  Hong  Kong, 
where  they  have  fallen  in  with  a  time-honored  cus- 
tom of  allowing  passengers  to  make  their  own  trans- 
fer, were  we  inclined  to  criticise.  Were  it  a  trans- 
17  257 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

fcr  from  one  steamship  to  another,  it  would  be 
altogether  different.  We  came  from  Manila  to 
Hong  Kong  on  the  Climu,  of  the  Pacific  Mail, 
and  there  trans-shipped  to  the  Siberia,  of  the  Pa- 
cific Mail,  and  though  the  tenders  of  the  Pacific 
Mail  were  making  transfers  from  one  steamship 
to  the  other,  and  though  we  were  in  the  harbor 
only  three  hours,  the  trans-Pacific  passengers  were 
all  compelled  to  use  Cook's  boat  or  to  call  a  sampan 
to  make  the  transfer.  Such  pettiness  is  unworthy 
of  a  great  corporation ;  but  that  is  very  little  to 
reproach  the  management  with.  We  found  our- 
selves wishing  that  the  Chinese  gambling  game 
called  fan-tan,  that  was  carried  on  incessantly, 
could  be  prohibited.  The  American  officers  say 
that  they  could  not  ship  a  Chinese  crew  if  it  were 
forbidden  to  gamble.  And  it  is  apparent  that  so 
long  as  Americans  by  the  hundreds  risk  their  money 
on  the  game  it  would  take  an  act  of  Congress  to 
end  it.  The  Siberia  poked  her  nose  about  the  bar 
of  the  Yangste  in  a  dense  fog  for  twenty  hours, 
trying  to  get  her  bearings,  but  we  had  time  at 
Shanghai  to  visit  our  publishing  house,  chat  with 
Dr.  Gamewell,  and  call  at  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association.     The  international  work  of  the 

258 


TRANS-PACIFIC 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  with  such  con- 
spicuous Associations  as  are  to  be  found  in  all  the 
large  cities  of  the  Orient,  with  equipment  and 
methods  that  remind  the  young  men  continually  of 
their  life  at  home,  is,  next  to  medical  work,  the 
notable  success  of  modern  missions.  John  R.  Mott, 
who  is  the  promoter  extraordinary,  was  offered  the 
post  of  minister  to  China  by  the  new  administra- 
tion, but  out  of  loyalty  to  his  work,  to  the  hun- 
dreds of  young  men  he  has  induced  to  enter  the 
service,  and  the  great  business  men  he  has  interested 
in  its  financial  conduct,  was  compelled  to  decline. 
He  is  Secretar}'^  of  State,  general  manager,  bishop 
de  facto,  and  vicar  of  such  a  Christian  work  as  at 
present  is  directed  by  no  other  man  in  Protestant 
Christianity. 

Because  the  Siberia  is  of  American  registry,  and 
therefore  American  soil,  we  happened  upon  one 
of  the  most  interesting  incidents  of  the  circum- 
navigation trip.  While  we  stood  on  the  docks  at 
Yokohama  waiting  for  a  lighter  to  transfer  us  to 
the  ship  we  were  accosted  by  one  of  the  young 
Chinese  students  sent  from  China  to  the  Imperial 
University  at  Tokyo.  His  family,  it  seems,  are 
Cantonese,  and  his  brother,  some  years  his  senior, 

^59 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

is  a  resident  of  California,  and  had  been  back  to 
Canton  for  a  visit.  The  brothers  had  not  met  for 
twelve  years.  He  was  returning  to  America  on 
the  Siberia^  to  which,  as  it  is  de  jure  United  States 
territory,  the  Chinese  student  was  refused  admis- 
sion. By  reason  of  a  case  of  suspected  smallpox 
on  the  Siberia,  and  the  Japanese  quarantine  regu- 
lations, the  brother  of  American  citizenship  on 
board  was  shipbound  and  could  not  land.  The 
Tokyo  student  had  been  actually  mlaltreated  by 
the  Swedish  quartermaster  and  some  Japanese 
coolies  because  of  his  persistent  attempts  to  get  to 
the  Siberia.  When  the  lighter  docked  we  gave  the 
Chinese  student  our  traveling  bags,  and  on  ap- 
proaching the  boats  he  was  warned  back  by  the 
same  burly  Swede,  saying,  "Chinks  not  allowed." 
I  waved  my  hand  and  roared  back,  "He  is  my  boy ; 
let  him  on."  There  is  an  appalling  influence  pos- 
sessed by  any  American  with  even  a  slightly  de- 
veloped "habit  of  command,"  and  the  coolies  stood 
back  while  he  boarded.  We  steamed  down  the  har- 
bor, and  as  we  approached  the  Siberia  a  long 
dialogue  ensued — in  Japanese,  though  we  perfectly 
understood  its  import.  At  the  ship's  side  we  were 
again  challenged,  but  we  elbowed  the  "boy"  ahead, 

260 


TRANS-PACIFIC 

and  once  more,  at  the  head  of  the  ship's  ladder,  the 
quartermaster  informed  us  that  "Chinks  are  pro- 
hibited." The  sanne  assertiveness,  however,  carried 
us  by  him,  and  the  ship's  surgeon,  another  Cer- 
berus, who  was  equally  definite,  but  more  compre- 
hending, allowed  him  to  pass.  He  stayed  all  day 
with  his  brother  and  gave  us  "the  blessing  of  my 
ancestors  for  twenty  generations"  at  parting.  But 
the  real  joy  of  the  incident  is  still  to  be  related. 
Several  days  out  from  Yokohama  a  Chinese  banker 
bound  for  Wall  Street  on  a  financial  errand,  for 
capitalizing  a  Chinese  railroad  concession,  came  and 
sat  down  by  my  steamer  chair.  He  told  me  how 
the  Chinese  "boys"  on  board  had  informed  him  of 
the  volunteer  service  to  one  of  his  countrymen,  and 
thanked  us  for  it.  He  was  widely  experienced  as 
a  traveler,  spoke  perfect  English,  and  we  talked 
for  an  hour  or  nuore  on  matters  American,  Chinese, 
and  personal.  As  he  rose  to  leave  he  said  in  effect : 
"I  am  too  old  to  change  my  religion;  I  shall  die 
in  the  faith  of  my  ancestors,  but  the  thing  that 
has  made  China  a  republic  and  will  make  the 
Chinese  Republic  Christian,  is  the  way  some  of  you 
Americans  practice  equality." 

Though  the  Pacific  is  such  a  broad  expanse  of 

261 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

water,  the  track  of  vessels  is  much  frequented,  and 
several  times  we  dropped  deck  golf  or  shuffle  board 
to  watch  the  passing  of  some  craft  Westward  ho! 
Bird  Island  was  in  view  for  several  hours,  looming 
at  first  like  some  lone  obelisk  in  the  waste  of  waters, 
then  rising  grim  and  tide-beaten  as  some  Monte 
Christo  or  St.  Helena.  There  were  returning  mis- 
sionaries by  the  dozen  on  board,  and  the  heart- 
to-heart  talks  we  had  with  them,  the  detailed  ac- 
counts of  particular  missions,  specific  information 
of  the  Chinese  Revolution,  accounts  of  the  Korean 
tortures,  the  Japanese-California  controversy,  and 
expectations  of  speedy  return  to  mission  fields  after 
leave  of  absence,  made  the  journey  short  and  in- 
forming. The  Sabbatlis  were  observed  by  preach- 
ing services,  and  Decoration  Day  was  celebrated 
by  an  address  attended  by  most  of  the  passengers. 
The  halt  at  Honolulu  gave  ample  time  for  calls  at 
the  museum,  the  university,  the  aquarium,  a  drive 
to  the  mountains,  and  a  dip  in  the  ocean  surf.  On 
the  second  morning  we  made  a  round  of  the 
churches  and  had  a  glimpse  of  the  dethroned  queen 
riding  in  an  old  State  carriage.  Surely  the  last 
of  the  Kamehamehas  ought  long  to  be  remem- 
bered, if  for  nothing  else  than  the  composition  of 

^62 


TRANS-PACIFIC 

Aloha  Oe.  We  secured  a  copy  of  it  at  the  book- 
store. The  ship's  orchestra  played  it  often,  and  it 
^vas  always  vociferously  applauded.  The  parting 
from  Honolulu,  like  the  sailing  from  Manila,  is 
almost  a  civic  function.  One  would  think  all  the 
town  was  there.  Bishops,  consuls,  and  colonels 
jostled  each  other  in  cheerful  good-fellowship. 
The  band  played  for  an  hour  preceding  the  depart- 
ure "The  Star-Spangled  Banner,"  "Aloha  Oe," 
and  "Home,  Sweet  Home;"  the  pelting  of  friends 
on  the  dock  with  wreaths  of  flowers  thrown  from 
the  ship,  and  the  smiling  of  friends  through  tears 
who  were  long  to  be  separated,  makes  an  inde- 
scribable scene.  The  shadow  of  it  was  all  forgot- 
ten, when  some  one  at  our  elbow  said,  "That  is 
where  we  got  our  good  cigars." 

We  had  been  at  home  ever  since  leaving  Manila, 
and  the  run  to  San  Francisco  scarcely  gave  us  more 
than  time  to  pack  up  our  belongings,  exchange 
cards  with  friends,  and  tip  the  "boys."  Out  of 
Honolulu,  the  trade  winds  at  first  roughened  the 
sea,  so  that  great  green  waves  beat  upon  the  bows 
and  showered  the  upper  deck,  making  the  prome- 
nade exciting;  but  two  days  carried  us  into  blue 
water,   and   the   engineer   had   to   slow   down   the 

263 


IN  PORTS  AFAR 

powerful  turbines  so  as  not  to  reach  San  Francisco 
on  Sunday.  Bright  and  early  on  Monday  morn- 
ing we  passed  tlirough  the  Golden  Gate,  were 
quickly  passed  at  quarantine,  and,  catching  the 
exact  moment  of  flood  and  ebb  in  the  tide,  were 
at  the  pier. 

"Serene,   indifferent  to   fate, 
Thou   sittest  at  the  Western   gate; 
Thou  seest  the  white  seas  fold  their  tents, 
O  warder  of  two  continents! 
Thou  drawest  all  things,  small  and  great. 
To  thee  beside  the  Western  gate." 

Thus  wrote  Bret  Harte  of  San  Francisco.  It  has 
rivals  now,  and  Seattle,  with  an  air  of  decency, 
respect  for  law,  and  without  the  Chinese  quarter 
which  is  absolutely  disgraceful,  will  divide  the 
future  greatness  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  if  it  does  not 
come  to  supremacy.  Then  began  our  almost  in- 
terminable passing  of  the  customs.  We  had  "cer- 
tificates of  origin,"  but  our  baggage  was  scattered 
all  over  the  space  assigned  to  the  "S"-section  of 
the  inspection  floor,  and  we  escaped  just  in  time 
to  greet  the  bishop  and  a  group  of  preachers  at 
the  Book  Concern  Building.  With  them  was 
Arthur  H.  Briggs,  once  member  of  the  California 

264 


TRANS-PACIFIC 

Conference;  he  and  Mrs.  Briggs  carried  us  off  to 
the  Palace  Hotel,  where  they  were  stopping,  having 
motored  up  from  San  Jose,  and  the  afternoon  was 
filled  with  lunch  and  dinner  and  festive  hours. 
Then  the  Western  Pacific,  last  of  the  trans-conti- 
nental routes  to  be  opened,  and  the  only  one  we 
had  not  traveled,  bore  us  down  Feather  River 
Canon,  past  Salt  Lake,  through  the  Royal  Gorge, 
and  home. 


^^5 


RARE  BOOK 
COLLECTION 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT 

CHAPEL  HILL 


Travel 

G440 

.S27 


